Death Is Only Mericful When He Wants To Be
by Demonic Insanity
Summary: When Sasuke tries to kill Naruto for the Mangekyou Sharingan, a stranger intervenes and saves his life. But, this stranger isn't a regular stranger you can find on the street. No, he's a reaper. And he needs an apprentice. Possible gore. Much death.
1. Prologue

I do not own Naruto. See that, now you can't sue me.

Sasuke stood over the defeated blond. The drops of rain drenching his clothes and that of his best friend, he grinned as he realized what had happened. He beat him. He had beaten the one that had grown stronger than him the past few months. Naruto had lost against him. This victory was sweet to Sasuke. It was one more step to achieving his final goal, the killing of his brother. He laughed and turned toward Orochimaru's hideout.

Pain. That was all he could feel. An intense pain seared through his head. He fell to his knees, holding his head in agony. Was this an effect of the curse seal? No, it wasn't. He knew that much. He could feel something else. It was so familiar. It was accompanying the pain. What was this?

'_Foolish brother. You cannot defeat me. You have yet acquired eyes like mine. You are no closer in defeating me than you were those many years ago. Shall I make you remember?_

Sasuke gritted his teeth as he saw the illusion of the Tsukiyomi again. This wasn't real. He knew this also. It was a memory of the incident that had begun his journey as an avenger. But whether or not the illusion was real and not a memory, it still made him understand something. His brother, Itachi, was more skilled than him in every way. He must have gotten stronger now. But, even if he did reach Itachi's level, he didn't have those eyes. The same eyes that had watched his parents be killed he did not have. He needs those eyes. He needs the Mangekyou Sharingan. Otherwise, Itachi will always be above him.

He looked back. Naruto was still there. He walked back to the blond and looked at the face of his best friend. It was a peaceful face, as if he had gone to sleep without any troubles. Sasuke lifted his hand and let the lightning style jutsu activate. He heard the chirping of the attack and felt a single shred of guilt and regret for what he was about to do. But, he had to. He brought his hand down and shot it toward the chest of the blond.

The blood was quickly washed away by the rain as it poured profusely onto the ground and Sasuke's arm. Sasuke removed his arm and, using his foot, pushed the blond into the water beside him. The body disappeared under the water, only to rise again a couple meters away. But from here, Sasuke could see the body slowly sinking as it lost his precious life liquid and tainted the water with its red color. However, Sasuke could not see it sink to the bottom. The body had fallen over the waterfall.

He waited. It wouldn't take much more time for Naruto to bleed out. After that, he would have the eyes to finally pass his brother.

He laughed to the heavens, already forgetting what he lost. All that he thought was revenge.

Kakashi leapt from branch to branch, following Pakku. If he didn't hurry, Pakku would lose the scent in the rain.

"Kakashi, I smell blood.", the ninja dog said. Kakashi didn't reply. He sped up. He wasn't going to lose someone from his team again.

Kakashi saw the opening between two trees as light shined through. With an extra boost of chakra, he shot into the area beyond the forest.

He saw one boy, raven haired, blue and white clothes. Kakashi nearly felt his heart drop when he didn't see a hint of orange, but he recovered. A ninja can't show weakness and it wasn't the time to lose hope. He nodded toward Pakku who poofed away. He jumped onto the rock that his student was on.

Sasuke was on his knees, shouting. "No, no! It's not possible!" Kakashi grabbed Sasuke by the shoulders and turned him around. "Sasuke, where's Naruto?", he demanded.

Sasuke didn't answer the question. It seemed that Sasuke was ignoring him because he continued yelling. "Not even him! It's not possible! Not even he could survive that!"

"Sasuke, where's Naruto?", Kakashi yelled, growing scared and impatient by the second. This still didn't grab his attention, but Kakashi didn't need it anymore. He got his answer from what his student said next.

"My Mangekyou Sharingan! Why don't I have it? He died. I killed him!"

Kakashi felt the world around him freeze. Mangekyou Sharingan, a cursed bloodline advancement that could only be made by killing one's best friend, and Sasuke had done it.

He could have let his temper go. He held in his anger at the enemy ninjas when Obito and Rin died. He held in his anger at the Kyuubi when his sensei died. He deserved to finally let go of his rage, wasn't he? He shook his head. No, he didn't. Sasuke did deserve it, but he was also his student. Kakashi chopped the back of the neck with his hand, which knocked Sasuke out, and made the silent, long trip back to the village.

Near the waterfall, a stranger smiled. He had just picked up a very special prize indeed. He had found a container and fixed it up using a Step technique. It was very special. What other container had inside the power of an Ethereal Shinigami and a 9th circle demon?

END

Please review. If you like it, I may continue the story.


	2. Chapter 1

'_Don't worry, Sakura-chan. I'll bring him back. It's a promise of a lifetime._

'_Sasuke! What about Sakura? She's waiting for you back in Konoha. Are you going to leave behind all your friends for power?_

'_If you're not going to come back with me, then I'll break every bone in your body!_

'_You're right. I never had a family._

'_But you were like a brother to me, Sasuke._

"**Are you still dwelling on the past? Wake up, fool! What's done is done."**, said a deep, bestial voice.

"Done? Past? What do you mean?", asked a boy's voice.

"**Enough with this foolishness. You failed. Even after I generously gave you my chakra, you still couldn't beat that Uchiha."**

"Uchiha? You mean Sasuke? What happened!"

"…**I see. You do not yet realize what has happened."**

"Tell me already! Did I win? Did I beat Sasuke?"

"**So I have the option of you figuring it out which you could recover from or showing you what happened which is less likely for you to recover from."**, the deep voice said to himself, **"Fine. I'll show you what happened."**

He looked at the boy sleeping on the cave floor. He smiled. He came to the Elemental Countries to find an apprentice. He had found a map of this land and did eenie-meeie-minie-moe and chose a country at random. After landing on Fire Country, he packed up enough supplies for a year-long trip plus enough supplies for his apprentice when or if he found one.

Why he was so happy wasn't the boy. The reason for his joy was he had only been here for a week when he fished him out of the river, much sooner than he expected. He realized after he brought the boy here that he didn't have a lot of patience. If he didn't find an apprentice by a month, he probably would have been bored and returned to his duties here.

He sighed. Reaper duties were not pleasant unless you liked killing. That's why he needed an apprentice. He needed someone to take his position so he could spend the rest of his life away from all this.

He brought himself out of his thoughts. Did he hear a groan? He looked at the boy again and saw that the boy was waking up.

'_Finally. If he didn't wake up sooner, some villages around here might have some unexplained deaths._

"I see you have awakened.", he said.

Naruto looked around. It wasn't really dark so he could see everything. They were right by the cave entrance. Naruto couldn't understand why, but the cave was odd. It looked too nice. The floor was clear of all rocks. There wasn't any rock formations or little pebbles anywhere. When he looked up, he saw that the roof was odd as well. It didn't have any projections like the floor. This cave looked manmade ,but when he looked back into the cave he saw some rocks. Somehow, something or someone cleared this entire front of the cave for comfort.

Naruto would usually ask where he was, yell at the top of his lungs, and attack before the stranger had a chance to explain who seem to have an odd accent. But thanks to the Kyuubi, he didn't need an explanation. He lost. Sasuke beat him and this stranger must have saved him. Thinking about Sasuke made Naruto sad. He failed. He failed his mission and Sakura-chan.

The stranger frowned. "Look, if you're going to have that depressing look on your face, then would you mind going back to sleep? It's making me sad."

Naruto didn't laugh at this. He just asked, "Why did you save me?" The stranger smiled. "Ah, finally. That's what I was waiting for. I was actually practicing my dialogue for when you woke up." Naruto looked at the stranger with a questioning look. Who practices what they are going to say before they say it? But if the stranger did see the look on his face, he ignored it. "But you were taking so long in waking up. I had to entertain myself with some rocks and sticks. I was actually going to go kill some people right as you woke." Now Naruto knew that this person was strange. Rocks and sticks, what could he do with those and keep himself entertained? And he said he was going to kill people like it was fun, as if he did it to keep himself from getting bored.

Naruto interrupted. "Wait, let's get back to my question before you tell me your life story." The stranger looked hurt as if he did plan in telling him that, but the look was quickly replaced with a smile. "Right, right. The question, let's get back to that. Why did I save you?... Wait, why did I save you again?"

Naruto looked with frustration, annoyance, and killer intent as the stranger sat down on the cave floor, rested his head against the palm of his hand, and pondered. After a few moments, the stranger looked back at the blond with a confused look. "What, do I have something on my face?"

Naruto facepalmed himself. "I thought you said you had this dialogue practiced.", Naruto said, actually more yelled. The stranger perked up. "Oh yeah, I did. Now let me think. What was I supposed to say? First, let boy wake. Second, explain what I was going to do before he woke. Third, forget what to say. Fourth, …ummm."

Naruto almost lost it. What the hell was wrong with this person? Third, forget what to say? Who plans that out? It was only a few moments later that Naruto realized that if he did plan it out he was doing this on purpose.

He glared at the stranger who had noticed this. "It seems that you're not incredibly dumb. Good, then you fit the requirements. Come apprentice. We have much to do."

"Apprentice? What are you saying? I'm not your apprentice. And you still haven't answered my question"

The stranger gave another confused look. "I didn't. I was pretty sure I did. Third, forget what to say. Fourth, have boy mad at me. Fifth, explain. Are you sure we haven't gotten to the fifth step?"

"…" Silence. Naruto didn't know what to say anymore. He gave up. But it seemed like the stranger was waiting for this too. "Good, now if you won't interrupt, I'll continue my explanation."

Naruto wanted to point out that he hadn't even started, but felt it was too dangerous for his mental health for the stranger to act like that again.

The stranger gave a little bow. "I won't give you my name. I'm from America so you'd probably mess it up anyways. You can call me Amari Imi or Amari-san or Amari-sama or better yet Amari-dono."

Naruto held in his arguments in. Amari Imi meant "much sense" and that was one thing that definitely didn't describe this guy. But again for reasons stated above, he kept quiet.

"I saved you because you're special. I want you to become my apprentice."

"Apprentice? For what?"

Amari's smile got bigger. "A reaper." When Naruto gave a slight cock of the head and a confused look, Amari sighed. "Might be easier to explain from the top."

'_You think?_, thought Naruto.

Amari continued. "Do you know what the Grim Reaper is?" Naruto nodded. "Of course." But as if Naruto hadn't answered, he explained anyways. "The Grim Reaper is the angel of death. He guides souls to their rightful afterlife, hell or heaven. But one day hundreds of years ago, he realized that it was too much for him. He couldn't handle the amount of souls coming in due to the population increase. So he assigned four souls to help him with this. He gave each of them a fraction of his power and left." Naruto leaned in. This sounded interesting.

"The four souls took on the name Ethereal Reapers. But these reapers also realized years later the death count was slowing. If the amount of deaths slowed enough, they would be thrown out by the Grim Reaper or worse, they would be bored. So they each assigned 7 humans with the job of increasing the death count because frankly, you humans are too healthy. Each human who is assigned has two requirements: they must kill a certain amount of people and one of these killed must be a specific person. They usually give you a note or something that tells you who to kill. Like mine, I have to kill 30 people each month. Good thing, I already got rid of my specific guy."

Now Naruto was a little freaked out. He would sneak out while he was explaining, but this guy was starting to sound scary.

"When a human accepts, they become a reaper. With the job, they receive a fraction of the power their Ethereal Reaper has. He also must pass on the job onto someone else."

"Or what?" Naruto asked, hoping that that wasn't a mistake.

Amari smiled. "Depending on their Ethereal Reaper, they are tortured for 30 days by it after they have died."

Naruto wanted to ask how he knew this since he was obviously not dead, but decided to ask something else. "And you want to pass on the job to me, right?"

Amari started clapping. "Congratulations! You're not stupid!"

Naruto again almost lost it and was about to yell at him, but then the strangest thing occurred. Pairs of hands rose out of the shadows and mimicked Amari's actions. The hands seemed to be made of shadow themselves, but it wasn't like the shadows that Shikamaru used. These shadows didn't seem to have definite boundaries. They were hazy as if the hand was covered with a black gas. But before Naruto could examine these abnormalities, Amari stopped clapping and the shadows dispersed as if they really were made of gas.

"What was that?", asked the slightly freaked out Naruto.

"All in good time, my young Padawan. Now, let's start the ritual."

"Padawan? Ritual? What are you talking about?", Naruto said, completely forgetting about what just happened as the frustration got ahold of him again.

"We have to start the ritual. If we don't, there's no way for you to become a reaper.", Amari said, with the last word being a little whiny.

"Wait, I never said I even wanted to become a reaper. Why should I become one?", Naruto yelled, extremely frustrated at this person's behavior.

"What are you going to do then?", asked Amari, who got all serious all of the sudden. Naruto was taken aback for a moment due to the quick change in behavior. Before he could answer the question, Amari continued.

"Do you really think you can save your friend by being who you are now?"

Naruto went wide eyed. "H-How do you know about that?", Naruto stuttered, being off balance.

Amari pointed to a place where the shadow loomed over the stone floor. It was also there where one of the pairs of hands popped up earlier. "You saw that, but you have no idea what you saw. What you saw was shadow manipulation. My Ethereal Reaper is the one that hides your enemies from you, inside and outside. It is because of him you can't see clearly. My Ethereal Reaper is the Shadow."

"Shadow?"

Amari smirked. "Didn't you hear me the first time?", he joked, but returned to serious a moment later. "When you make rash decisions on things due to anger, sadness, or frustration, it is because of a fog in your mind. My Ethereal Reaper is responsible for creating these fogs."

Naruto was a little angry. There were some times where he had lost it due to his emotions. Okay, a lot of times, but that wasn't the point. If he had thought clearly, he would have seen the signs with Sasuke. But because he valued their friendship so much, he couldn't see it. "Why doesn't someone fix that then?", he yelled.

"Because for some people, it is necessary!", Amari shouted back, leaving Naruto stunned at his response. "You live a good life. Respect that. But there are some people that are so stricken with misery, misfortune, and death that it is easier for them to live if my Ethereal Reaper steps in."

Naruto remained stunned. He never thought of that before. It was then when he realized that he too had blocked out part of his life because it was so miserable. Until he made friends in the Academy, he spent every day forgetting. Without Amari's Ethereal Reaper, he would have lost it long ago.

After Amari saw Naruto calm down, he said this, "Plus ninjas would be completely useless if they were always seen, right?"

Naruto chuckled at this. He didn't think of that either due to his anger. But then he got angry again when he realized that the Shadow was responsible for this.

However Amari ignored this and continued. "I know about your friend because I can see anything that's troubling you. Anything that may act as a haze in your life. It's one of the perks of being a reaper of Shadow. Now that you have no questions, let's start the ritual."

Naruto was confused. He still had questions, first of all. And second, Amar's pace was so odd. It went from being quick to being slow and vice versa so much that it was making his brain hurt. But he knew what Amari said before was true. As he is now, there's no way he could bring back Sasuke.

Amari pointed to what seemed to Naruto a random place on the floor. "Sit here. We'll start the ritual." Naruto nodded and did exactly what he said. "This is safe, right?"

Amari smiled. "Of course."

"So I won't die or anything, right?"

Amari got a confused look on his face. "Is that what safe means now? Ohhhhhh. No, it's not safe at all." Before Naruto could say something on the lines of I think I'll reconsider, Amari grabbed his head quickly twisted it. There was an audible crack as he broke Naruto's neck.

"Let's start the ritual."

END

Review, please?


	3. Chapter 2

I do not own Naruto. Wow, this is really annoying to write every chapter.

Machines whirred. Objects twirled. Things beeped. He thought he heard a squeak.

Amari frowned. He must be really bored if he started to make rhymes out of his observations. However, he had no choice. The bath had to be equally proportioned. There had to be exactly 55% water, 25% glucose, and 20% Nuvali seals in this solution. Otherwise, the bath would be completely useless.

A little bit before this, he had taken out all the equipment needed for the ritual. All of it was stored in a Nuvali seal he had to obtain from another reaper.

'_For those of you who don't know, there are four kinds of reapers. They are all named after their Ethereal Reaper. There are Nuvali, Infiernus, Zemen, and Shadow. Shadow has the domain of the darkness. Zemen has control over all terrestrial things, which mean anything consisting of water and earth. Infiernus rules over fire. Nuvali is responsible for all seals, locks, and keys whether physical or otherwise. Zemen is pretty straightforward. Infiernus, Nuvali, and Shadow are not. Shadow I have already mentioned before. Infiernus has domain over the actual fire that can burn you to a crisp. Hehehe. But it also has control over motivation, basically the fire in your heart. However, it cannot create motivation. It can only increase it. Nuvali is partly responsible for the ninja's creation. Without him, there would be no hand seals, seals to seal stuff with, and no jutsus. He is also in charge of certain memories. There are some memories that people want to forget. That's the Shadow's responsibility. There are some memories that people want to not think about for a moment. This is Nuvali's responsibility. He can lock memories and unlock them. But unlike the Shadow, he cannot keep it hidden from the person. _

Amari's frown deepened. Did he just explain something to someone just now? Is he really that bored that he would talk to people that were not there in his mind?

Something rang. He looked up and saw that the solution was finished. He immediately switched off the machine that filled the bath with the solution.

He took a glance at it. It literally looked like one of the Bacta Tanks from Star Wars. It was a clear tube that had many instruments in it with a few monitors showing the statuses of the tank. One of them was blank. This monitor was to show the status of the boy. The top was open so that he could put the boy in it.

The boy, he was curious about who he was. He saw the darkness and from his headband, he knew that he was from Konoha. But he wanted to know who he was. So he did a little research. And by research, he means he took the boy's clothes and searched every nook and cranny for an ID card.

It was 5 minutes later when he realized he wasn't in a developed country full of technology but a developed country full of jutsus. He gave up looking for an ID card and was about to return the boy's clothes when he saw it.

His eyes widened. '_That seal!_

There was no doubt. He had seen that seal before which meant that this boy was…

'_Why was Kushina's son floating near dead down a river?_

Of course, he got bored of thinking and went back to work.

He grabbed Naruto and threw him over his shoulder. He then made the shadow created by the tube rise up and formed it into stairs. When he got to the top, he dumped the boy into the tank and closed the top.

There was a reason why the kid had to be dead for him to use this ritual. It wasn't because he had to kill him; it was just easier this way. The process is a very painful process. During which, everyone dies anyways due to the pain. Reapers always used that method because they thought it was good pain tolerance training. However as humans progressed, so did the reapers. They became more humane. They realized that this was not about pain tolerance training at all. Reapers just liked to torture their students.

Of course even if they were more humane, it wasn't enough. The thing was a person is still technically alive after having their neck snapped. It would take like 30 minutes for the heart to stop after the neck was broken. Because of this, if they were put into the seal before the 30 minutes was up, they might awake during the middle of the painful ritual. But if a reaper did wait until 30 minutes have passed, everything would be dead by then. The amount of energy needed to bring back even one tiny, dead cell was staggering.

Of course, things have changed. This new technology was created to take on energy from its battery and outside sources which included a reaper's energy. Now, new apprentices can be put through the ritual without the extreme painful part.

His finger hovered over the button that would start the machine. As soon as he started, he would have to quickly go to the panel that would absorb his energy. Without another thought, he pressed the button and hurried over to the panel. He placed his hands on it and put his energy into it.

There are four parts that people can use for energy: physical, mental, spiritual, and natural. The combination of physical and mental creates chakra. The combination of physical and natural creates sage chakra. And the combination of physical and spiritual creates reaper's energy or zeher. Unfortunately, you had to be somewhat dead to use zeher. Other living people have tried using it but kept dying as soon as the energy was created. That's why it was called zeher or poison.

The irony was even though the apprentices couldn't feel any pain, the machine looked less humane. There were many needles that inserted themselves into the tank. These needles would inject nanobots that held oxygen that would be delivered to each kind of cell. Those cells, after being revived by the Nuvali seal, would then grow like cancer cells, replacing those that had already died. This was one of most painful part. The needles were painful enough, but it was the nanobots that caused most of the pain. If the dead cells were replaced by the new cells, they would accumulate with nowhere to go. So the nanobots were created so that they would scrape anything that was dead off. And with the newly growing neurons, it was very painful indeed.

The other most painful part was on the outside. The cells of the skin would accumulate as well. However using nanobots is most inefficient on the outside due to the large surface area. And scraping off all the dead skin cells was not an option. Amari shivered at the thought. That was just a disgusting thought. So they used something else: Acid.

He accidently had put his hand into the acid before and that was not a pleasant experience. But as long as Naruto doesn't revive and regain consciousness, he'll be okay.

He let the energy flow from him and went into a trance-like state due to the low hum of the tank and the movement of the needles. All he had to do was to make sure he didn't put too much energy and Naruto would wake up again.

He knew something was wrong right away. He knew because he was 99% sure that a sleeping/unconscious person shouldn't be screaming like he was in hell. He had to block out the sound because it was so damaging to his ears, but then he realized he had to do something. He checked all the monitors and realized there was something odd about it. The amount of cells being destroyed by the nanobots was at least three times higher than what it should be. That means for some reason either the machines were overworking or this kid was somehow regenerating on his own. With that realization, he immediately shut down all the machines, although most had shut down since he had removed contact with the energy absorbing panel.

He checked the monitor and let out a breath of relief. He didn't kill the boy. The status monitor was showing that he was doing fine. However, the boy didn't wake up. He was slightly worried, but then again there was no precedent for this. All he could do, he figured, was to wait.

In Naruto's mind…

"**You fucking moron! You nearly got us killed!**", the fox said for the like millionth time. Naruto was arguing with him, but after the thousandth time he got bored of the argument. So after the millionth time, he left to search his mind. Notice, he left to _search_ not explore. There was this weird nagging feeling that was at the back of his mind, literally. He followed the feeling through the labyrinth of his mind and arrived at a room. It was a bit odd and creepy in his opinion. There were four gates. Each had its own color: red, blue and green, black and white, and a black that seemed to suck everything in like a black hole. Naruto had to stop himself when he realized he had started walking towards that particular gate.

Another odd thing was every single one of these gates except the blue and green gate had a lock on it. He wished he paid attention when they taught lock picking at the academy, but oh well. He went to the blue and green gate and knocked.

He wasn't expecting an answer but then he heard this. "Finally! Someone finally comes here." The doors of the gate swung open and Naruto nearly yelled in fright on what he saw.

It wasn't the fact that the person was dressed weirdly that scared him. True, he did have a short blade and wore a demonic mask, but it was who the person was that scared him. He fell to his knees and bowed immediately. "Shinigami-sama.", he said.

If he was happy at his respect, he didn't show it. Actually, it was more like he couldn't with the mask on his face.

"Get up. Get up. I hate being so formal.", said the Shinigami. Naruto was a little confused at the behavior, but ignored it. Naruto opened his mouth to ask why the Shinigami was in his mind, but the death ruler beat him to it. "I know what you're thinking. You might want to sit. It's a long story." Naruto, not trying to offend the almighty being, complied.

"Thirteen years ago, the fourth hokage summoned me to seal the Kyuubi. Of course, you already know this. However, what you don't know is that I never sealed the Kyuubi." Naruto's eyes went wide and his mouth gaped open. "What do you mean? The Kyuubi is here, held back by your seal."

The Shinigami shook his head. "Sorry. I can't do seals. No, when you're hokage learned of this, he begged with me to help him. I knew that there was one that could seal him in. I summoned Nuvali."

"Nuvali?", Naruto asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Nuvali is the ultimate seal master, since he was the first seal master. He is, like me, an Ethereal Reaper."

If Naruto's eyes could go any wider, they would. The Shinigami chuckled to himself at the boy's reaction before continuing. "But when Nuvali appeared, he told us that he wasn't able to seal the Kyuubi in by himself. He could create the seal that is currently holding the Kyuubi back, but the Kyuubi's dark soul was too much for him. So he summoned Shadow. And from your earlier conversations, I know that you already discussed who he is so I'll keep going."

"Shadow appeared before us. But after examining the Kyuubi, he said he also could not do it. The soul he could handle; however, the fire element of the Kyuubi would burn him before he got to the soul. He summoned another Ethereal Reaper: Infiernus, a master of fire. With the combination of the three Ethereal Reapers, the Kyuubi was sealed into you. I took care of the body so that it wouldn't go on a mindless rampage greater than the one it had been on."

When the Shinigami stopped talking, Naruto found something off. "Why did you tell me this? What has the other three have to do with me?"

". Not bad of a name. But let me answer your question with another question. What did I take from your hokage according to your stories?"

Naruto had paid attention in class for this because he really wanted to surpass the fourth in any way he could. He sounded so awesome, how he stood up to a towering beast and gave up his life to save the entire village. "He had to give you his soul, right?"

The Shinigami nodded. "Correct. For summoning me, he had to give his soul as payment. But, the other wanted payment too since they were also summoned."

"So what did he give the three?", asked Naruto.

"He gave something that the three could entertain themselves with for a long time. He gave them you."

"…Me?", Naruto asked, hoping he heard differently. Unfortunately, that was not the case. "Why me? Out of all people, why did he give me?", he asked with a tone of a mix of anger and confusion.

"Imagine. A living, breathing human with a Nuvali seal and my energy mixed in to finish the transaction. We have them before and it would make him powerful. But not only that, but the other reapers had to give their energy as well to keep the Kyuubi from killing one of us. It was unprecedented. The reason he gave us to you was because of two reasons. First, he knew that as long as you interested us, you would be under our protection."

When Naruto heard this, his face lit up. But the Shinigami lifted his hands. "Whoa, whoa. Slow down. It doesn't mean you can't die. If you go unarmed into an a raging army, you're going to be screwed, protection or not." Naruto smiled fell and went back into the confused and angry look he kept having when he was in here.

"The second reason was the reason they told him why they wanted you."

"Wait a minute.", Naruto said with his hands in the air this time. "I thought you told me the fourth gave me away."

"He did, after some persuasion." Naruto facepalmed himself. "Be more clear next time. I thought for a moment he gave me up as if I was trash."

"Sorry, sorry. Now back to the subject. The reason the other three wanted you was what you could become."

Naruto waited for the answer. But when the Shinigami started to clean his fingers, he nearly snapped…. Again. One from Amari and one from this guy. "And I could become…"

"huh? Oh yeah. Sorry. Forgot. You humans aren't that bright anymore." Naruto decided to not retort for the same reasons he didn't say anything to Amari's senselessness.

"You could literally become a Grim Reaper on Earth.", he said with a smile. Or at least, Naruto assumed he was smiling. That mask was starting to get on his nerves. But nonetheless, his eyes widened. "A Grim Reaper on Earth?"

The Shinigami nodded. "Now, it seems you have to go. Amari is waiting patiently for you to wake up."

Naruto nodded and began to leave. But as he turned around to go, he saw the other gates again. "Wait, then I'm guessing these gates hold the other three 's energies. How can I unlock them?"

The Shinigami looked at each lock and examined them carefully. "It seems that each lock needs a specific key. Like this gate here," he pointed to the red gate, "I can tell that Infiernus is back there. But it seems this lock needs his energy to unlock. My guess is that you need to find a reaper that is aligned with Infiernus and have them give you their zeher, or their reaper energy." Naruto nodded and with that left the room and his mind.

Outside in the real world…

Naruto watched with a bit of amusement as Amari paced the floor saying things like "You got to be kidding me" and "That's not fair". He had just finished telling the Shadow reaper about what the Shinigami told him. After Amari calmed down, he explained to Naruto everything he explained before (above, remember? He was talking to himself.)

"So which do you think is the Shinigami?", asked Naruto. Amari chuckled a little. ". Still feels weird saying that. Bleh. But from how you described him, it seems like he is most likely Zemen."

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, if what Zemen said was true, then I think it's best for me to give you me zeher and for you to unlock the Shadow gate." Without waiting for a reply, Amari placed his hands on Naruto's shoulders and released a quick burst of zeher.

Naruto went silent for a moment, during which Amari thought he broke him. Whoops. But that became untrue when Naruto suddenly shook himself as if he was coming out of a sleep. "Dude, Shadow is just depressing."

Amari smiled. "Why do you think I'm like this? Be happy, be cheerful. It balances him out."

Naruto was pretty surprised. He was expecting another guy with a mask, but he saw something odd. He had seen the lock on the black gate open and saw the come out. It was freaky. No other way to describe it. It seemed like a skeleton, but he couldn't tell. There was a constant cloak of shadow covering him so he couldn't really see him that clearly.

Amari brought Naruto out of his thoughts. "Now, we have to start training."

Naruto smiled. Training was one of his favorite words. "Good, where do we start?"

Amari thought for a moment before turning to Naruto. "We start with a weapon. You're going to create your own Death Scythe."

END

Please review. And I know the explanations were boring, but deal with it.


	4. Chapter 3

I really hate writing this every single chapter. I do not own Naruto.

Naruto breathed heavily, looking at his new creation proudly. Amari had taught him how to make his Death Scythe, but that was two days ago. He had spent the entire 48 hours working on his weapon. However, Naruto felt like it would have been easier if Amari had been more specific and clear.

_Flashback_

"You're going to create your own Death Scythe."

"…huh? A death scythe? But I never trained with a scythe before. Plus I'm more of a justu person myself.", complained Naruto.

Amari shook his head. "You really have to stop assuming too much, especially because you're a ninja. You do that on a mission and you'll find yourself in a deep pit."

Naruto was surprised, again for like the fourth time today. '_There's something wrong with him._, thought Naruto, '_He talks like he knows about what a ninja goes through. _Usually, this was the time Naruto would examine the person to see if he was good or bad. However, it was really hard to tell with him. Amari literally followed his . He wore a black trench coat, black pants, and a black shirt. His coat had a hood that he constantly wore and he wore a mask that was black also. If Amari stepped into a shadow, he wouldn't be able to spot him right away.

"So what is a Death Scythe exactly?", asked the blond. Instead of answering, Amari reached to the inside of his coat and grabbed something. But when Naruto looked closer, he saw nothing in his hands. Then, as if it appeared out of thin air, a dark knife appeared in his hand. He showed it to Naruto.

It wasn't like the kunai he had in his holster. This was a hunting knife. It had a thick edge on one side and a serrated edge on the other. On the blade itself, there were odd seals and characters that he had never seen before.

Amari smiled. "That's my Death Scythe." Naruto looked at him with confusion. "But this-" Amari interrupted. "I know. It's not a scythe. See, I told you that you have to stop assuming. Only a few reapers and the Grim Reaper have an actual scythe. The weapon takes on the form of the person's zeher. So what I want you to do is concentrate your zeher into this." Amari left the cave and brought back a metal rod. "Don't mess up. This is a silver rod. Hard as hell, but really expensive." With that, without leaving any instructions, Amari left.

_Flashback End_

It seems that Amari had forgotten another thing. Like last time when he forgot to explain, he forgot to tell Naruto how to find and use his zeher. But Naruto went into a meditative state, even though staying still was so boring, and found it after a day. He then went to the metal rod. He really didn't know what to do. Was he supposed to fashion his weapon out of this and use his zeher to help? No, he said that the weapon took on the form of the zeher so it probably had a huge part of the weapon creation. He had finally decided to just supercharge the rod with zeher and see what happens.

That was what happened. At the end of the day, Naruto was standing over his new Death Scythe. It was odd but he liked it. It looked like a sword, kind of. The hilt looked like any old hilt from a katana however there were two different kinds of seals. The rest of the sword was pretty regular except for one thing. The length wasn't it. It was a head and about a half shorter than him. The thickness was good too. It wasn't too thin that it was fragile but it wasn't too thick either. No, what was different about it was the width. It was really wide, wider than his arm. (Imagine Ichigo's zanpaktou from the first episode of Bleach.)

He stood up and lifted up the blade. It surprised him on how light it was. He went to the nearest tree, swung his scythe back, and let it cut into the tree. It surprised him again. It cut the tree as if it was butter. After getting over his surprise, he grinned. He had only started his training and yet he already had a powerful weapon. But he was still curious about the seals on the hilt. He knew that ninjas sometimes used seals ,and to activate or release it, they added chakra to it. He began doing that, but when nothing happened, he slapped his forehead. This was a reaper weapon so it probably needed zeher. He started doing that, and much to his delight yet more confusion, the blade started to glow. He went to another tree and swung.

The next thing he knew was that he was thrown into the tree behind him. After getting over the pain in his back, he looked at the tree. The weapon had managed to surprise him again.

The tree was gone. At least the top part was gone. The remaining trunk was smoking. His blade had managed to rip itself out of his hands and embed into another tree.

"Nice.", a voice said behind him. Naruto reacted instantly, adding zeher into the blade and swinging it behind him, but he remembered to add chakra to his feet so he wouldn't fly off again. The blade swung an inch past Amari's nose and hit the tree next to him. The blade cut clean through like the last time but this time as soon as the blade left the tree, a hole appeared and sucked in everything, leaving a smoking trunk.

"Easy there.", Amari said, with his hands in the air as an act of surrender, "I come in peace. Wait,… no, I don't. But you still shouldn't attack me."

Naruto's head dropped as he let out a big sigh of frustration. "What do you want?"

Amari smiled. "Well, I just wanted to see how far you were in creating your Death Scythe. And it seems you succeeded. That means I am awesome for teaching you how to create your own." At the second sentence, Amari had put his hands on his hips and looked at the sky heroically.

"Uhhh… There's one problem with that.", said Naruto. "You didn't teach me anything."

Amari looked at Naruto confused. "What do you mean I didn't teach you anything?"

Naruto sighed. This felt familiar. "I mean, you left without telling me how to do this." Amari scratched his head. "I don't recall. Wait, I planned this out. Let's see,", he said as he pulled out a notebook, "See this time I wrote it down. Okay… First, explain to apprentice about the . Second, enjoy a nice long vacation while apprentice makes Death Scythe. Third, teach apprentice about how to make Death Scythe. See, it's right there! I told you. I planned it out very carefully."

Naruto felt a headache coming on. "Another problem. You put teach me after coming back." Amari looked at Naruto with another confused look and read his notebook again. "Huh. Whoops, you're right. But you were able to find out the answer without me helping which means I must an awesome master.", he said with his hands on his hips and in a heroic fashion again.

Naruto decided not to play this game again with Amari. "So, I finished my Death Scythe. Now what?"

Amari rubbed his hands together. "We start the actual training. I'm going to teach you some Shadow techniques."

"…What the hell? You made me go through that entire making process and we don't even train for it?"

Amari shrugged. "Like every reaper, you should be able to know how to use your weapon, even if you never used that type of weapon before. Remember, it's your zeher. It has a part of your spiritual energy. If you have the patience, you'll learn it by yourself soon enough."

Naruto huffed. But if that was true, then he would have to spend less time with Amari. Less time equaled less headaches. "Fine."

Amari smiled and nodded. "Good. Then we can start training on how to use the power of Shadow." He lead Naruto to an open space with not as many trees. Here the sun hit the ground and made everything shine, from the grass to the rocks. There were few shadows, but the ones that did exist streaked through the field.

"Sit down. You have much to learn and I have little to teach.", said Amari. Naruto bit his tongue from replying to the nonsense of the sentence. Amari pointed a finger toward him. "Do you remember what I said about the Shadow, where its domain exists?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "I think the domain was the shadows of the universe and the darkness of one's heart."

"Good. That's an essential part of the techniques I'm going to teach you. For you to control the shadows like I do, you need to find your own darkness, and let it engulf you. Let the darkness take control."

Naruto didn't like the sound of that, but he shook his doubts away. '_Too late to back out now._, he thought. He thought for a minute, trying to find his own darkness. He thought of how he failed in capturing Sasuke and thought that was good. He let it spread throughout his heart, but stopped when Amari said, "Stop."

Naruto looked up with frustration. "What?", he asked. Amari shook his head. "That darkness is no good. It is a powerful darkness because of the ties or bonds or whatever you want to call it with this boy, but say you saved him. What would happen to the darkness?" Without letting Naruto make a reply, he answered. "Poof. It would disappear. You would have to find a new darkness every single time. No, that's no good. Suppose you saved him in a middle of a fight. Do you think the people guarding your friend will give you time to think of another darkness? No, of course not. Find another darkness."

Naruto saw the reasoning in his argument and was again surprised but this time at the fact that Amari made sense. He went back to his thoughts and pushed the darkness that contained the thoughts of Sasuke down. He thought and thought but he couldn't think of another. He was about to give up when Amari again interrupted, "Remember, the darkness doesn't always have to be bad. It doesn't always have to be about failure and death."

Naruto nodded and tried again but this time allowing his mind to fill with any thought instead of bad ones. He saw many possible darknesses; however, one stood out from the others. He smiled at the thought. It was his one goal. He almost forgot about it fighting Sasuke.

He wanted to be acknowledged. For too long, people saw him as the fox. They saw a monster of great destruction, not a lonely boy. He waited for Amari to tell him again to say "That's no good.", but he only heard his calm breaths. He let the thought fill his mind. When he was sure it had engulfed his mind so that all he really wanted was that, he opened his eyes.

Amari smiled and nodded again. "Good. Now we can finally start." He stood up and walked over to a boulder that was imbedded in the field but Naruto still had a question. "Hey, why is this better? Why is this darkness better than the one about Sasuke? If I become Hokage, they would have to acknowledge me, right?"

Amari turned around. "You're kind of right. First, just because you become hokage, they aren't going to bow down and say, "All hail the mighty idiot."" Naruto let the insult past for his sanity's sake. "I know that. But, if I do, won't that make me vulnerable?"

Amari shook his head. "But you're limiting yourself. Your darkness was for people to acknowledge you. The good thing is that your stupidity made it broad. That's good." Naruto was starting to be bothered by the insults but he decided it was still better to say nothing. Amari continued. "It's good because you didn't specify anything. Your darkness will stay with you as long as a single person doesn't acknowledge you. But if someone doesn't know you, they can't acknowledge you. So as long as you don't meet every single person in the world, you'll be fine. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to start the training now."

Naruto smiled enthusiastically. He followed Amari who waved him toward a shadow that was created by a rock that reached their waists. It made a shadow that stretched two meters. Amari sat down next to the shadow so that his shadow didn't touch the rock's shadow. Naruto followed suit.

"Can you feel the darkness that you created within your heart?", Amari asked. Naruto nodded. "It feels kind of heavy."

"Good. Now, to control the shadows to your every whim, you must imagine the darkness in your heart reaching out to the shadows."

"Imagine?", Naruto asked, "Why would I have to imagine? Isn't the darkness like an energy?"

Amari responded by laughing out loud. "Listen to yourself. It would make no sense if darkness was an energy. We get rid of our darkness by eliminating its source or by counteracting it with a greater good experience. That doesn't sound like an energy at all."

Naruto got slightly embarrassed now that he thought about it. "So just imagine the darkness reaching out?" Amari didn't answer but rather directed Naruto's attention to the shadow. Naruto closed his eyes and tried to isolate the feeling of the darkness. When he did that, he opened his eyes and imagined the darkness traveling down his arms and legs and hitting the ground. Then he imagined the darkness traveling toward the shadow. When he felt like the darkness reached the shadow, he nodded at Amari.

Amari spoke, "Now use your imagination to shape the shadow. Imagine it rising off the ground and forming a shape."

Naruto thought for a moment in what he should do. After thinking a while, he decided to copy Amari. The shadow rose off the ground and formed a pair of hands. They began clapping, however it was much slower than when Amari did it.

Amari sighed. "Well, I guess that was okay although I wish it was more creative and original. But good. Now, I want you to practice until you can form the shadow in the span of a half-second." With that, Amari disappeared again.

Naruto began practicing, but in the middle of it, he wondered where Amari went all the time. But he pushed the thought away and focused on his training.

A month later, Naruto was done. He could have his darkness take control of any shadows in a 25 feet radius circle and do it in a half-second. And as if he knew he was done, Amari came walking into the field. Naruto greeted him with an energetic wave. He learned that because darkness isn't an energy, he doesn't lose any strength.

Amari gave a small wave back. "So, you're finished, right?"

Naruto grinned. "Yep.", but his grin fell and was replaced with a questioning look, "But the hands aren't solid. I tried touching the shadow hand, but my finger went right through. What's the point of this if I can't use solid forms?"

Amari waved his hands dismissively. "Don't worry. That's easy. Just the next time you create shadow forms, concentrate your zeher in your heart." Naruto sighed in disappointment. He really thought this wouldn't cost any energy. It would have been awesome if it didn't. "So what now?"

Amari smiled. "There is one benefit to being a reaper aligned with Shadow. Can you figure it out?"

Naruto looked up and down at Amari as he stretched his arms and legs out. But Naruto couldn't see anything unusual. "I give up. What's the benefit?" Amari pouted. "Aww, that's no fun if you give up. But fine. The benefit is my clothes. The truth is this isn't a type of fabric. It's made of shadow." Naruto's eyes went wide at that statement.

Amari smiled at his reaction. "Yep. So you're going to do this. But, when you do complete this, remember to wear actual clothes underneath the shadow clothes unless you're as good as me. Then you're okay."

Naruto looked at Amari with a strange look. "Wait, are you implying that you're not wearing anything underneath?" Amari just nodded proudly. Naruto asked, "Are you constantly adding zeher to your clothing?" Amari shook his head. "Of course not. That would be tiring."

"So basically, if I got this right, it's kind of like you're naked right now, right?", asked Naruto, hoping for a no. Unfortunately, Amari nodded proudly again. Naruto began inching away from his teacher until he decided it was far enough away.

However, Naruto noticed something odd with what Amari said before. "Wait, you said when I do complete this right now. Why not tell me this after I finish?" Amari rubbed the back of his head, much like Naruto does, making Naruto feel a little creeped out. "Well, you see," Amari began, "I'm done with teaching you as soon as you finish the shadow clothing."

"… WHAT?", yelled Naruto. "What do you mean? It can't be the end. There must be more shadow techniques you can teach me. And you never even taught me how to use my Death Scythe!"

Amari shrugged. "Sorry kid. But the thing is first, the techniques I use are all original. So like every other reaper, you have to create your own shadow techniques. That's why I wished you were more original and creative. And second, I have no idea on how to use your Death Scythe. I only know how to use mine, like any other reaper."

Naruto frowned and glared at Amari. "Then how the hell am I supposed to learn how to use it?"

Amari stuck up two fingers. "You can learn by two ways. First, get a swordmaster to teach you. However, that's not the best method. Second, learn it yourself. Your Death Scythe is made from your zeher, a part of you. If you have patience and listen to it, it will teach you. But don't actually stick the blade in your ear. It's not literal in that sense."

Naruto thought who would actually think that was true, but remembering who Amari was, he knew that the person in front of him had probably done it. "So what do I do now?"

Amari shrugged. "Why don't you go back to Konoha? You can train again with your friends and if you take enough missions, you might find the other three reapers aligned with the other and have them teach you how to use that particular ability."

Naruto nodded. He was kind of sad that Amari didn't teach him anything really good, but that he had to think of everything himself. But he was really glad on the fact that he would be with his friends again.

Amari clapped his hands together. "All right. Now if we are done with this talk, let's design your clothes."

END

Please review. I mean it, review this.


	5. Chapter 4

'_So boring._, thought Kotetsu, a chunin of Konoha. He was extremely bored today. Him and Izumo were always the one chosen for gate duty, who knows why. But today out of all days, there were no visitors or returning ninjas, nothing.

He had wanted to distract himself from his boredom with a game with Izumo, but he was sick today. And instead of having someone else fill in, the hokage thought it was okay to leave him alone as if she knew that there would be no traffic today.

He was about to call it forgone and just sleep through the job when he saw someone walking to the gate. He smiled. '_Finally!_, he thought gladly as he stood up out of his seat and waited for the stranger to walk in. However, when the person got closer, he thought he should pinch himself.

'_That's impossible._, he said to himself. But he examined the person anyways. '_Spiky, blond hair: check; six whiskers, three on each side: check; blue eyes: check; orange clothing: check. Nope, it's him alright._

When the stranger got there, he looked at Kotetsu and gave a little grin. "Kotetsu-san, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Kotetsu stuttered. "Naruto, is that you?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. Let me check." He got out a handheld mirror and looked in it. "It looks like me, so I must be me.", he said, happy with his logic. Kotetsu looked at him oddly. '_Okayyy? Maybe he's not fully Uzumaki Naruto in the head._ He shook his head. It didn't matter. What mattered was that he was back and the Hokage would be most pleased and maybe he would be promoted out of this job. "But anyways, welcome back. Everyone's been worried about you- …" , he started. But he stared at the spot where Naruto should have been. In place of him was a note.

It read, "_Dear Kotetsu, I know you probably had much to tell me. But I have things to do. Like, ummm…. Stuff. Yeah, stuff! So, sorry. But I can't stay. From, Naruto, I think._"

Kotetsu cursed. There goes his promotion. But he was a little worried. Naruto really didn't seem like himself.

A few minutes later after the meeting…

Tsunade took another swing of her sake. She had been drinking sake ever since Kakashi came back with only Sasuke. She should have developed liver cancer by now if she didn't keep sending medical chakra to it.

When Tsunade learned that Kakashi came back with only one student, but not Naruto, she nearly lost it. She would have too, if something Kakashi said didn't slow her down.

"_Sasuke was shouting about the Mangekyou Sharingan. Apparently, he wasn't able to evolve one. That means that Sasuke's best friend, in this case Naruto, survived. Whether or not he's still alive is a mystery. But there is hope that he isn't dead._"

She sent tens of ANBU squads out to find him after listening to him. All she could do now is wait.

She stamped another paper with the sign of the hokage when she heard a voice behind her, "You're doing it wrong."

First, she checked the paper and saw that she did indeed stamp it in the wrong place. Then she realized that it was a male voice, so it wasn't Shizune. She immediately swung her hand back and added chakra to it. She felt impact and, a moment later, something crashed into the wall next to her. She got up and got into a battle stance. What came next wasn't what she was expecting.

She nearly cried when she saw the person came out. There was no doubt. "Naruto.", she said. Naruto still wore that hideous orange like usual, but the outfit was different. He wore an orange vest and wore the usual blue ninja pants. His best was not as creative as his other jacket. It had the one zipper going from the bottom to top and the Uzumaki insignia on the back.

Naruto remained silent, then, "OWWWWWW! What the hell, baa-chan?", he shouted angrily. "I'm only back for five minutes and you smack me and send me flying into the wall?" He held his head. "OWWWWWW! It freakin' hurts!"

She apologized profusely. But, at least to her, it didn't seem like he was listening. Instead, he went over to the wall, the unbroken one, and smashed his head into it. Tsunade, as a mednin, instinctively ran over to help. But, he pulled his head out and smiled. "Much better. I'm good."

'_no. no I don't think you are._, Tsunade thought. But ignored that and hugged Naruto. "I missed you, you little brat.", she said. Naruto was always like a little brother to her.

"ummm, I don't want to interrupt this hug, but I think you just broke a rib.", said Naruto, muffled by the sheer power of Tsunade's hug. She let him go, and healed his rib up. "Now, sit. You have some explaining to do."

Naruto waved his hands frantically. "Whatever it is, I had nothing to do with it.", he said with his eyes twitching back and forth. Tsunade sweatdropped. "And what was it that you exactly did?" Naruto put a hand over his heart. "I promised I wouldn't tell.", he said.

"Fine, fine.", said Tsunade, who was starting to be exasperated at this point. "Just tell me where you've been all this time."

"Sorry,", he said, "Can't tell you that either. All I can say is I've been training."

"Training?", she asked curiously. She was always eager to hear about his training ever since he brought her back by mastering the Rasengan in a week. "Would you mind elaborating?"

Naruto shook his head with a smile. "Nope, but you might be lucky enough to watch."

Tsunade frowned. Usually, this blond kid would be jumping off the walls, asking to show off his new technique. Something was really wrong with him. But, this wasn't the time to do anything. "Have you met everybody yet? They've been worried about you."

"Really?", he asked, "Then I must I go." He stood up, took a bow, and jumped out the window. Tsunade chuckled to herself. At least he was still hyperactive. She took a stamp and was about to stamp the next paper, but right before she hit the paper with the stamp, she noticed a note under it. She lifted the stamp so she could see the note.

"_Again, you're doing it wrong._" She looked at the paper. "Well, I'll be darned."

Naruto decided to walk the streets. He really didn't want to spend time looking for someone in this huge village. Now, some of you might be asking why Naruto seems like he needs his head checked. Remember the weird bacta tank Naruto was in? It was powered by Amari's zeher so naturally some of it got mixed in. So basically, some of Amari's spirit was in Naruto, turning him into what he is now. Usually, Naruto would've freaked out, but by the time Amari told him, it was too late. Naruto was already mentally ill.

Back to Naruto, he is still strolling the streets. It was a little weird. Usually, he would get death glares and the very occasional hello. But, this time he got looks of surprise. There was one death glare that went by and it bothered Naruto greatly. After letting his darkness become for everyone to acknowledge him, it was really hard to see those glares pointed at him because of the Kyuubi.

"Halt!", he heard. He looked up and saw a man, maybe in his forties or fifties, wearing common civilian attire. He glared at Naruto who sighed at the fact that it was another guy who hated the Kyuubi and him.

The man yelled, "You do not belong here! Leave!" Naruto ignored him and kept walking. The man grabbed his arm and twisted it slightly. "You reapers that are not aligned with Zemen-sama are not welcome here.", he whispered. Naruto was surprised but didn't show it. Instead, he smiled. "Interesting.", said Naruto, "And if I don't leave?", he asked. The man's eyes narrowed. "Then you'll die.", he whispered harshly. He let go of Naruto's arm, stepped back, and said, "Meet me at Training Ground 23 at three sharp for a Kovo de Morte." He then stepped into the alley.

Naruto didn't bother following him. But his smile got bigger. His first Kovo de Morte. From what Amari explained, which was a little confusing, it meant combat of the deaths. Plus, that guy might be his teacher later on if he would at least try to understand.

Naruto only knew Shadow techniques. Unless another reaper teaches him how to use the other kinds of zeher, he would be stuck with them. But, he was proficient at his techniques so he wasn't worried.

He started to take a couple more steps before he was stopped again. This time, it was a girl. She was also wearing civilian attire, but it was a little odd. The females usually wore kimonos that reached their ankles. But, she wore hers at her knees. It was better for running, he presumed which made it a little odd. Why would a civilian need to run?. Naruto sighed deeply. If this blocking kept continuing, he might have to cut down the crowd before he could walk. And he meant literally cut down.

The girl went to her knees and bowed down, surprising him. Then she began apologizing. "I'm sorry. I'm very, very sorry." Naruto was a little confused. Was this someone who attacked him during his childhood and now was apologizing? No, it couldn't be. She looked no older than him. "Get up.", Naruto ordered, "And tell me why you feel the need to apologize."

She got up and explained. "I have to apologize for my father's behavior."

"Your father?", Naruto asked.

"The man that you just met is my father." Naruto thought for a moment. Did she know about her father being a reaper? "Do you know why he talked to me?", Naruto questioned. She shook her head. "I don't know, but I do know that he just barged out of our shop today and went directly to you. It didn't seem like he had a past grudge. So I'm apologizing for his rude behavior. Please, let me make it up to you."

'_What a loyal daughter._, thought Naruto. "You don't really have to do anything. However, I would like some company while I look for my friends." She nodded, having a serious look on her face. '_Sheesh. Lighten up a little. You don't need to be so serious all the time._, thought Naruto.

As they walked, much to Naruto's disappointment and it was a little funny too, he'll admit, she was a very serious girl. '_She wouldn't survive a day with Amari_, concluded Naruto after hearing her for a little while. But it seemed that she wasn't born serious. For some reason, her father was always getting kicked out of towns. '_Most likely because he had to complete his monthly kills. Someone must have noticed._ She hated it. But, whatever the reason was for her father getting kicked out of town, it must have been special to her father because even when everyone pleaded with him, he wouldn't back down. So, now she helps her father by making it up with the people her father may have done wrong. '_And thus explaining her serious and always determined behavior._

After a few hours, the girl said she needed to return home. Naruto said goodbye and started to leave. But as he did, the girl shouted, "Wait, you never told me your name!"

Naruto shouted back, "It's rude if you don't give your name first!"

"My name is Kotomi!", she shouted. "Tsuyosa Kotomi!"

"Mine is Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto! Now can we stop shouting?"

"Yes! I mean, yes, we can."

"'kay! BYE!" With that, he ran off to find someone familiar, leaving Kotomi to wonder why he shouted after he asked if they could stop.

After wandering the streets, he finally gave up the hope that someone would "accidently" bump into him. What was this, a fanfiction? He decided to visit some places that he already knew. He thought about going to Ichiraku, but chose to go somewhere else first: Training Ground 7.

He walked through the forest that surrounded and penetrated the training ground. This training ground was where he had his first challenge with his team. It would be good to reminisce.

"-with better charka control. You're just going to lose control again if you don't master this perfectly. Otherwise, the strain will affect your will. Now try again.", came a voice from the training ground's open area. Naruto was a little disappointed. He was hoping he could be alone. But beggars can't be choosers. Of course, he wasn't begging, but that was beside the point. The point was he liked ramen. So he decided to spy on this teaching.

He quickly jumped to the near top of the tree that gave him an imperfect view of the training ground. He could only see the teacher. To his surprise, it was someone he knew. '_Kakashi-sensei_.

Naruto jumped to the next tree, risking getting closer and having him noticed. He now saw the jounin with another familiar person. '_Sakura-chan! So she's finally getting some training from him after all._ But he noticed that sometimes when Kakashi was speaking, he was addressing the spot next to her. He still couldn't see that spot because of the leaves, so he risked getting even closer. He nearly fell off his branch when he saw the next person. '_Sasuke?_ Unfortunately, because he nearly fell, he shook a branch a little too hard.

"Who's there?", yelled Kakashi before throwing shuriken his way. Naruto smirked. '_Shuriken? That's too eas- Oh, shit._ At the same time, Sasuke breathed out a fireball heading toward his direction. Now, he had a choice: stay put and be burned, jump off and possible be hit by shuriken, or that. He decided to do that. He closed his eyes and let the darkness reach out to the shadows around him.

"**Shadow Technique: Black Hole Barrier!**"

END


	6. Chapter 5

_He had a choice: stay put and be burned, jump off and possible be hit by shuriken, or that. He decided to do that. He closed his eyes and let the darkness reach out to the shadows around him._

"_**Shadow Technique: Black Hole Barrier!**__"_

A black hole opened up momentarily. It had one opening which faced Team 7's direction. For that brief moment, the black hole sucked in everything near it and dragged everything far away toward it. The fireball and the shuriken were immediately sucked in. And as if it knew it was done, the black hole closed up and disappeared. Naruto smiled at his technique. With help from Amari, he had created it because mostly he thought it was awesome.

'_Flashback_

"So, there is one last thing I have to teach you before you go. When I teach you this last thing, I'm packing up my bags and leaving. So ask any questions you still have unanswered.", said Amari.

Naruto thought for a moment. "Wait, so if somehow I got tricked into a place where there was no shadow, I'd be defenseless?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't worry about that. There's only one place that that is possible. And unless you want to kill yourself to get to Heaven, you don't have to fret about it."

"Wait, but what if they tricked me into a room with no windows and there was light everywhere? I mean, the hospital always seemed like that to me every single time I was there."

Amari shook his head. "Whoops, I didn't teach you that, did I?" Naruto was used to that sentence since Amari's poor planning always made it so he would teach him something after giving him an assignment where it would be nearly impossible without that teaching. Amari raised his hand and looked at a rock with concentration. Naruto felt his zeher spike up and stood back.

Amari then took a deep breath, arching his back and lifting one of his feet slightly. Then in one movement, he breathed out, stood straight, slammed his foot on the ground, and yelled, "**Shards of Darkness: Shrapnel Shot!**"

Naruto concentrated on Amari's zeher. He felt it reach out to a place in the air, which confused him. How could darkness be in the air? He suddenly felt Amari's zeher fly out to the rock at about the same time Amari shouted. Little cuts appeared on the rock, as if by magic. These cuts were very thin, but very deep. However, it seemed random. The cuts were not in any special pattern.

Naruto's jaw was barely hanging onto his skull. "How? What just- What did you-"

Amari smiled at his reaction. "Everything is made of atoms, correct?" Naruto couldn't speak since his jaw refused to return back up, so he just nodded.

"But there is always space between the atoms. That's how light gets through. Gases especially are very spread out. Now, here's a science fact. Light are just subatomic particles, more specifically electrons. So if you can find spaces between the atoms and electrons, you got darkness particles. Then just gather a small amount. Just don't gather too much. If you do, you would have created anti-matter, and boy, that is one thing that is not fun to play with."

Naruto's jaw still wouldn't come back up, so he just nodded again.

_Flashback End_

Naruto, after testing it, noticed something. When you split an atom, it explodes. He knew that from basic knowledge. Actually, he knew it when Kakashi-sensei tried to get him to read more books. But when you split a darkness particle, it implodes, creating a temporary black hole. But discovering that was not the best experience.

Naruto jumped down and raised his hands in surrender. "Don't attack. It's me, Naruto. I come in peace…. Wait a minute. When does a ninja ever come in peace? But still, don't attack!", shouted Naruto. The other three people sweatdropped at this greeting while Sakura tried not to laugh at the absurdity.

Sasuke growled, "Prove you're Naruto. What was the password that we shared at the Forest of Death in the Chunin Exams?"

Naruto thought frantically, nervously looking around for an escape path if he got it wrong. "Umm, is it…uhhh… I know. It's Sasuke is a gay wad, right?"

"NO!", Sasuke shouted, making hand seals for another jutsu whether that was Naruto or not. He wasn't gay!

Naruto tensed, ready to jump out of the way. But then, he sighed. He looked up with a great, big smile on his face as if he was proud. "I forgot. Hehe." All three members of Team 7's heads hit the ground. When they got back up, Sasuke smirked. "You're Naruto, all right. No one else is that stupid. But0" Sasuke finished his hand seals, "You're still going to die. **Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!**"

Naruto laughed at the fireball coming toward his direction. "So boring. Is that jutsu all you use? **Dark of the Deep: Drenching!**" Naruto reached out to the lake nearby. He felt that it was dark at the bottom. Gathering the darkness and sending his zeher, he pushed the darkness up with incredible speed, therefore pushing the water out at the same speed. The result was the water flying out of the lake and onto the fireball, putting it out.

Sasuke, with Sakura and Kakashi, stood open mouthed. Naruto thought about gloating, but he knew that this was his chance. He sped to Sasuke and punched him in the gut. Sasuke doubled over, trying to get air back into his lungs. Kakashi and Sakura were shocked. Kakashi shook himself out of his stupor first and took a kunai. "Who are you, really?", he demanded. Naruto didn't answer. He lifted his hand up and started to form zeher there. "Sorry, Sasuke.", he said. Sasuke got enough air to say, "B-Bastard."

Kakashi revealed his Sharingan and was about to attack. However, with the advanced vision, he noticed an odd energy accumulating at Naruto's hand. Then he saw the seals appear. His confusion made him stop attacking as he couldn't recognize those seals. And his sensei was a seal master.

Naruto pushed his hand against Sasuke's gut a little more, making him bend over more. '_There!_, thought Naruto as he saw his prize. He brought his hand down and hit the curse seal.

Then, BOOM!

Naruto was thrown back into a tree. Kakashi and Sakura were thrown back as well, but because they were farther away, they stopped themselves with chakra. Dust flew all around where Sasuke was.

Naruto got up and grabbed his head. "OWWW! I just healed there!" After his shouts of pain, he went over to where Sasuke was. The dust cleared, revealing Sasuke, face down. Naruto rubbed his head. "Whoops, a little too much."

Naruto saw everything suddenly be farther away as Kakashi grabbed him and slammed him against the tree followed by Sakura bonking him on the head, hard. "Tell me, what did you do to my student?", he yelled.

". . . OWWWWW! WTF! WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE HITTIG ME ON THE HEAD!", screamed Naruto as he shook, trying to get his hands up to his head to soothe it. But Kakashi's grabbed one arm while Sakura grabbed the other. "Enough! Answer my question!"

"The curse seal! OW!", Naruto shouted out as he struggled against his two teammates.

"What about it?", Kakashi asked. Sakura, fearing that Naruto was Orochimaru's henchman in disguise, hit him again.

Naruto screamed again as his head throbbed. "It's gone!", he yelled. When they let him go, Naruto grabbed his head and screamed some more. The two ran over to Sasuke and checked his neck. To their surprise, he was telling the truth. The curse seal was gone. However, Sasuke was knocked out.

Tears welled in Sakura's eyes as she looked at the absence of the seal. She turned around and was about to express her gratitude, if she had not started to laugh. Naruto was still grabbing his head, but now he was rolling on the ground. And he wasn't doing it back and forth. He rolled in one direction, yelling, "OWWWW!", the entire time. He then ended up rolling to a tree. His head collided into it and he went unconscious.

"Uhh… Blah… Where am I?", asked Naruto as he looked at his surroundings. It was a white room with monitors, curtains, and a sense of cleanliness. He noticed that he was in a bed, and there were a row of beds next to him. He took one more look around. '_Wait, I know this place_., thought Naruto as he lifted the covers and stood up.

It was a hospital room. He's been here too many times to count. He looked down and saw that whoever brought him here didn't bother dressing him in patient attire. He still had his orange clothes on. He reached to his forehead, and was relieved that his hitai-ate was still there.

The doors slid open. Naruto greeted his visitors, "Hello Kakashi-sensei, Obaa-chan."

A tick mark on Tsunade's forehead appeared. "Do you want me to hit you into the wall again?", she said through clenched teeth as her fist rose. Naruto ignored her and asked Kakashi, "Sasuke is fine, right?"

Kakashi smiled, or did that eye smile thing. "He's perfectly fine. He's just been sleeping for a long time, that's all."

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "A long time? Wait, how long have I been out?"

"Not that long.", Kakashi said, "Only 14 hours."

"FOURTEEN?", Naruto shouted. It was nearly time for his Kovo de Morte. "Sorry, I have an appointment. I'll catch up with you and the other guys later." Naruto turned around and sped toward the window. Tsunade, seeing his present course, opened her mouth to scream at Naruto when he crashed into the glass. But, leaving the two adults shocked, Naruto jumped into the glass, and as he was in the air, a haze of black dust appeared around Naruto. Then he went right through the glass without damaging anything. As soon as he was on the other side, the dust disappeared. Naruto sped off, not noticing the fish like face reactions Tsunade and Kakashi were making.

Naruto looked at the sun's position. He figured that he had about 10 minutes to get to the training ground where the old man was waiting for him. Even if he was a ninja, he never learned the Shushin. He'll never get there in time. Unless,

"This is going to hurt like crap. **Grim Reaper Stage 1 technique: Shadow Teleport.**" If anyone had been watching, they would have seen Naruto's shadow rise up and over him, engulfing him completely. Then they would have saw the shadow flatten, and finally, the shadow would have returned to its 2-D shape, break off into four pieces, and each piece shooting to the nearest dark area. But no one did. So there, I win. . . . What was it that I won?

He tapped his foot impatiently. Where was that Shadow reaper? If he didn't come in the next five minutes, he will go into town and destroy every building until he found him. Of course, that was how he got kicked out of Unikanen, a town by the sea that he lived in five years ago.

He sighed. He had wished that no reapers would come here. After doing some research, he figured out that reapers had never been chosen from the ninja group and Konoha was the closest to the last town. He knew that his family were tired of moving around so much, his wife especially. But he had to destroy this new reaper no matter what.

He felt a sudden spike in zeher and did a quick search. '_What the hell is that?_, he thought as a bulge rose out of a shadow created by the many trees. It rose to a height of about five feet and a half. The front part split in half and started to peel back, revealing the Shadow reaper inside.

He immediately got into a battle stance, putting on a cool impassive face. However, in the inside, he was quite worried. This technique was a first. After fighting a few Shadow reapers, he knew most of the tactics and the similarities of the techniques they shared. But this was entirely new.

The boy stepped out and began stretching. "That was really gloomy in there.", he said after he finished his exercises. He too got into a battle stance, but unlike him, he smiled. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What's yours?", he asked in a polite tone.

He growled at the nicety of his question. "Don't act like you're actually worthy of forgiving. You don't need to know my name, anyways. You're going to die today."

Naruto frowned. "How rude.", he said. "Fine, you don't need to tell me your name, Tsuyosa-san."

His eyes widened. "How do you know my name?", he asked. "Answer me!"

Naruto said, "I met your daughter. Very nice, however, she's too serious. Maybe she should spend some time with me or with Amari. I mean, when she grows old, she's going to be boring if she doesn't change. Unless, she was a pervert secretly. That seemed to work on the old man. He's so serious all the time, but he's never boring. I mean-"

"Shut up!", Tsuyosa shouted. "Don't go near my daughter again, you bastard."

Naruto crossed his arms and put on a thinking face. "Actually, since I don't know who my parents are, there's a chance that I'm not a bastard. But-"

He had enough. He slapped the ground. A moment later, a seal appeared, carving into the dirt. After the seal was completed, a scythe came out of the ground. "You're going to die here and now. Prepare to fall from my Shukaku-ki!"

Naruto frowned again. "The Harvester? That's what you name your Death Scythe? How boring.", he said. He untied his hitai-ate and threw it up into the air. He smiled at the thought at how his came to be.

_Flashback_

"If you have no other questions, then let's get started.", Amari said. He reached into his pocket and took out a paper. This paper had holes in it that, Naruto noticed, had a particular pattern on it.

"This paper has a Nuvali seal inscribed into it. Even though most reapers hate the other reapers, the Nuvali reapers were always in the neutral zone. They would help anyone for the right price. So, I got this seal off them. You're going to need it."

"For what?", Naruto asked.

"Well," Amari said, "how else are you going to seal in your weapon? You're not going to carry that thing around everywhere, are you?", he said.

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly. "Actually, yeah."

"No."

"No?"

"No,", Amari said, "You're going to seal your weapon in. Now all we have to do is find the one thing you know that you'll never lose or you'll always try to keep it around."

After thinking a while, Naruto snapped his fingers. "My hitai-ate! I'll never lose this."

Amari nodded. "If you think so. Now, give it to me so I can put that seal on it. And think of a name for your Death Scythe while I'm doing so."

Naruto looked down at his sword. What name would fit it? Let's see, when he chops into something, a black hole appears in the middle of it. As if it was trying to-

"I got it!", Naruto shouted. Amari dropped his spray can that he was using. "Oh great, that sucks. What? Why did you shout?"

Naruto put on a really big grin. "The name. I got it. It will be called-"

_Flashback End_

"Come forth, Soul Stealer."

The hitai-ate became immersed into a black orb which soon expanded in size. When the orb dissolved, the hitai-ate was gone. Instead, a familiar black sword replaced it.

Naruto caught it and pointed it toward the man. "See, Soul Stealer is a much better name than Shukaku-ki. Yours is so boring. Why don't you rename it or something?"

Naruto yelped as Tsuyosa swung his scythe at his head. He quickly ducked and jabbed at the man's knees. The man sidestepped while he twirled his scythe behind his back. He brought the scythe back to the front and swung down. Naruto rolled over on the ground as the scythe sliced into the earth beside him. He pushed with his hands and leaped over Tsuyosa. When he landed behind him, he quickly smashed his elbow into the center of his back.

Tsuyosa's mouth opened wide as the pain spread throughout his back. One of his hands reached to soothe it while the other held his scythe. As he did this, Naruto did two things. He first made a Kage Bunshin. Then he spun around Tsuyosa until they were facing each other. Then as Tsuyosa was preoccupied with the pain, Naruto punched the older man's ribs as hard as he could. He felt something crack and cave in under his fist, knowing that he had broken Tsuyosa's ribs. The pain from the both sides made him drop his scythe. That's when the Kage Bunshin grabbed both his arms. It pulled them back while it placed its foot on Tsuyosa's back, immobilizing him.

Naruto then stuck his sword in the ground while he gathered chakra into his fists and swung both of them at the same time. The result was Tsuyosa receiving a double whammy. Naruto felt something crack again, but this time nothing caved. But Naruto wasn't done yet. He brought his arm back and got ready to punch again. But this time, he reached out to his shadow and, with zeher, he pushed the shadow up and onto his elbow at high speeds. His fist shot out and hit the man's stomach. At the same time, he released his Kage Bunshin.

Tsuyosa flew into the trees behind him. Naruto fell to his knee and started gasping for air. He never concentrated so much in his whole life. But as soon as he felt better, he removed his sword from the dirt and got into a battle stance. If Amari taught him anything about the other reapers, it was that the battle is always far from over.

_Flashback_

Amari had just answered his first question which was about the darkness particles. "So, any other questions before we start? I kind of want to start writing the seal for your weapon sealing soon."

"Seal?", asked Naruto.

"I'll explain later. Now, question?"

Naruto thought about what he wanted to know. He tried thinking about what he could do to boost his power and if getting zeher from another reaper was the only way to unlock the gates.

'_Other reapers, huh?_ Naruto looked up and smiled. "Got it! What do the other powers do the other reapers have?"

Amari nodded. "Not bad. Let's start with Nuvali reapers. They really have no special talent except the sealing skill. But, they are dangerous. I've been told that they could put a thousand seals on their body just for defense, and none of these seals would be visible. So don't underestimate them. Infiernus reapers have fire abilities, but they are also immune to fire. Plus, they could change the temperature since they also control heat. But they can't change the temperature with water. That's a no-no to them. And last but not least, Zemen reapers have the power to change the earth around them. But because they are considered earth as well, they could change themselves too."

"Like how?", Naruto asked as he imagined a 50 foot reaper giant.

"Well, they could regenerate. No matter what wound, they could heal it back up."

"Ohh, so it's like the Kyuubi's chakra, right?"

"Kyuubi?", Amari asked with a confused tone. "What do you mean?"

"Well, every time I use the Kyuubi's chakra, all my wounds heal up.", Naruto explained. He got a little mad when Amari started laughing.

"The Kyuubi can't heal wounds.", Amari said, trying to hold his laughter in so that he could speak. This time Naruto was confused. "What do you mean?"

"The Kyuubi has a chakra called youkai which is demon's charka. However, this charka corrodes away at flesh. It's not like Infiernus and fire. It's more like acid."

"But, then how are my cuts healing when I use it?"

Amari thought for a moment. "Wait, I think I got it. If what you said about the gates were true, then the gate of Zemen has always been open. I knew that one of the had put in his zeher into your seal to make sure it would hold against the Kyuubi. So, maybe when you use it, the youkai has to get out some way. And energy will always choose the easiest path. So, the open gate of Zemen must have been it. It must drag a little bit of Zemen zeher with it when it comes out of the seal."

"Huh. But, do you think I could get more zeher from Zemen out? I mean, I did nearly die before."

"Hmm, if you learn from a Zemen reaper, you should be able to. But, they might not like you immediately. According to Shadow, all reapers are being told about you. But, they won't know it's you. So, watch out, especially with a Zemen Reaper."

"Why especially them?"

"I heard from my teacher that Zemen reapers could regenerate any lost flesh as long as one cell was alive. Don't underestimate them."

_Flashback End_

Naruto watched with great focus as he tried to figure out where Tsuyosa was going to come from. He thought he heard a crack behind him, and he swung backwards. To his surprise, he hit nothing.

He heard another crack behind him, and he swung again. He yelled in frustration as he sliced air again, but he took a deep breath and calmed down. '_This isn't a time to freak out._, thought Naruto, '_Now, should I just make a Shadow barrier around me or should I make Kage Bunshin?_ Before he decided what to do, another crack was heard. He turned around, but didn't swing this time. However, this time there was something there.

Naruto coughed as a pillar of stone burst out of the ground and smashed into his stomach. He dragged his feet against the ground to stop himself, and was about to swing again, but he felt an emptiness in his hand. He looked at where he was standing before and saw he dropped his sword.

He began running, but when he took his first step, his feet sank into the earth. He tried to pull away, but his feet were stuck. Then branches shot out of the ground and entangled his hands. He tried to gather zeher to cut through this with shadow, but it was as if the branches were blocking the flow.

"Don't even try." Naruto looked up and saw Tsuyosa pulling himself out of the ground from a hole that wasn't there before and dusting himself off. "I've dealt with your kind before. Those branches are special. They have a special Nuvali seal on them that block any Shadow zeher by absorbing all of it."

Naruto was fidgeting with the branches, trying to see if it had a weak point. He almost gave up when he heard Nuvali seal, but he smile when he heard absorbing.

'_One rule of seals: they can only contain so much._, thought Naruto, remembering what he knew from that seal book he found a long time ago. He had found that book in the garbage and had took it home to read, but it was too boring. But he did remember some things. He concentrated on his hands and focused as much zeher as he could to the branches. A little later, the seals of the branches grew red, but his zeher supply was half gone.

Tsuyosa shook his head. "Just give it up. Even if you did overload the seals, you would be out of zeher completely."

Naruto said, "Another person said something similar to me. I had a chakra sealer on me, and she said that it was pointless to try." Naruto smiled at the memories of when he had gone to the Land of the Snow or presently the Spring. "And I told her one thing. Can you guess?"

Tsuyosa scoffed at him. "I don't care. Don't try to make everything better by talking. I'm still going to slice you up."

**Boom!**

The seals overloaded and exploded with great force. The branches broke into wooden shrapnel. Naruto's grin grew. "I'm a ninja so I never give up. That's my nindo way!"

'_Kyuubi!_, shouted Naruto, mentally.

"**I know!**", the Bijuu yelled back. Naruto's smile grin grew even bigger as he felt the surge of energy. The theory was that if the Kyuubi can produce chakra without a body (and chakra needs a physical energy), then it was possible that he could produce zeher, or so Amari said. But Naruto was nearly overwhelmed at the amount of zeher that flooded his system.

Tsuyosa took a few steps back at the amount of zeher that had just suddenly appeared. _'Did he just open a gate? Wait, . . . no. This is a different zeher. What is he?_, he thought as he gulped at the evil feeling this zeher gave off.

Naruto knew that he had to end this quick. If he used the Kyuubi's zeher too long, his own soul would be corrupted. He reached out to all the shadows at one time and sent all the zeher out.

Tsuyosa felt relief as the malevolent feel slowly went away. He looked up to see why the zeher had gone, and he almost pissed himself.

Four chains of shadows shot out of each corner of the forest. They all hit each other right behind Naruto. To the untrained eye, it seemed that a ball of shadow just grew, but Tsuyosa saw the chains feeding it shadow and zeher.

The ball of shadow that was connected to the chains grew to monstrous size, until it was the size of the Hokage Tower. The chains were sucked in and melded into the ball. That's when the ball started to mold itself. That's when Tsuyosa nearly pissed himself.

The ball stretched out until it was the size of the Hokage Mountain. Then arms and legs grew out. Details of a face were molded until it looked like something recognizable. To Tsuyosa, it looked like a giant.

"My most powerful technique,", Naruto said, "**Shadow Technique: Rise of the Titan, Kronos!**"

END


	7. Chapter 6

I do not own Naruto. Some other Asian guy owns it. Lucky.

Tsuyosa dove as a giant fist crashed into the place he was just standing. He grabbed his scythe and began attacking it, but it seemed to have no effect. He then jumped on top of the hand and ran up the arm. When he reached the shoulder, he jumped again to strike the head, but a fist slammed into him and crushed him into the ground. He felt all his ribs break, a couple organs rupture, and agonizing pain. The pain soon dulled as the fist lifted up and he began healing.

He got up as best as he could, but stumbled from the amount of zeher it took to heal all the injuries. '_Damn it. I can't drag this out much longer. If I do, I'll die._

Naruto grinned the entire time. Truthfully, this technique was a work in progress. He only created this in theory and had half expected it to fail. He gave a mental command to the titan to smash the rock Tsuyosa had summoned and flung his way.

The rock was twice as big as he was, but the titan easily smashed through the stone. It then stomped where the older man was, but missed. Naruto gave another mental command to step on him, because it seemed funny, but it was a mistake.

The titan stepped, but missed again. But this time Tsuyosa was prepared. He shifted the ground under the foot of the titan and made it lose its balance. As the titan tried to not trip, Tsuyosa faced his palms toward the forest and swung them to the titan. A moment later, a huge branch that could rival the branches of the trees in the Forest of Death hit the titan on its head. The titan tittered on its toes with his other foot, but soon lost the grip on the ground and fell.

Naruto kept smiling. Even though Kronos fell, it was a good experiment. But his smile soon fell as he heard a scream. He looked at the direction and saw someone under the falling titan.

It was Kotomi!

Naruto began to try to make some kind of shadow blocks to prevent the titan from crushing the girl, but as he did, he lost his concentration when he heard, "NO!"

A mountain shot out of the ground and smashed into the titan, holding him up. Then a huge stream of water rose out of the lake nearby and pierced the titan through the head. Then a huge blade of wind the size of the titan appeared out of nowhere as if it appeared out of thin air. (Get it? Hehe.) The blade sliced the titan in half. The shadow figure soon dissipated as all the shadow tendrils that formed it shot back to their original place.

Naruto looked at Tsuyosa surprised. That was a powerful combination. However, Tsuyosa looked pissed. "You!", he yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Naruto, "You tried to kill my daughter!"

Naruto raised his hands up defensively. "Hey, that was your fault.", he blamed. But Tsuyosa didn't hear or ignored him because he started to shout, "I'm going to kill you for bringing my family into this! You have dishonored yourself as a reaper for attacking a human being during a Kovo de Morte. Now, I'm going to put you 20 feet under!"

The next thing Naruto knew was that a ton of zeher flew out of the man. At the same time, a seal appeared behind him. It was a very simple seal: a circle with "Earth" in kanji. Then the dust of the ground flew up and blocked Tsuyosa from all view. When the dust settled, it revealed Tsuyosa. He wore all the same clothes as before, but he now wore a mask that Naruto found very similar to Zemen's mask. His hair had grown out to his waist and turned white.

"Now,", Tsuyosa said, "I'll kill you for attacking my daughter." He looked at the said person, "Kotomi, run now. It's going to be dangerous."

Kotomi was stunned at the transformation her father just took, but when he spoke, she shook herself out of the shock and said, "But Dad, Uzumaki-san didn't attack me. That thing just fell on-"

"Silence!", Tsuyosa shouted. "I don't know why you know his name, but don't say it again. He's a monster!"

"Hey, wait a minute,", said Naruto, "This is just a huge misunderstanding. Now why don't we calm down and discuss this calmly."

The next Naruto knew was he was on the ground with many bruises and a few fractured ribs. He tried to remember what just happened. When he remembered, he cursed. Tsuyosa was much stronger. He moved the elements too quickly. Stone pillars had smashed into every side before Naruto blinked.

Naruto decided it was time to pay a visit. He would need all the help he can get.

In Naruto's mind…

"Yo, ! Knock knock!", Naruto shouted. The two gates opened and Zemen and Shadow walked out.

"What did Tsuyosa just do?", Naruto asked. The Shadow groaned and facepalmed himself. "You didn't learn this?", he asked. Naruto shook his head.

"The next time we can talk, we need to have a nice, long chat about what your teacher didn't teach you.", said Shadow. "Now, I'll explain why he's kicking your ass."

"Did you know that every reaper has one of these gates in them?", asked Shadow. Naruto shook his head again with a surprised look on his face.

"Well, that's how that man got so much stronger. These gates right now are closed, correct? That's how it's supposed to be; however, a reaper can open these gates for a short amount of time, giving them a huge burst of zeher."

Naruto grinned. "So I can open these gates too, right? Let's open them!"

"No!,", the Shadow shouted, "You cannot. Learning how to open them can take weeks of training!" Upon hearing this, Naruto sagged forward as he moaned disappointedly.

"How about this?", said the Shinigami or Zemen as Naruto now calls him, "You just open the gate and control the zemen from the inside. That way he doesn't need training right now."

The Shadow thought for a moment. "That could work, but the time that the gates are opened is greatly shortened. You think you can beat him with that time?", he asked Naruto.

"Depends. How much time do I get?"

"30 minutes." Naruto looked determined. "Yeah, I can do it. Don't worry, he'll find out who's ass is being kicked real soon."

"Really?", the Shadow said, "That's the best you got?" He sighed. "fine, just beat him."

"And,", Zemen said, "I'll open my gate and control the zeher as well."

"Two gates at the same time?", the shadow asked, with a surprised tone in his voice, although since Naruto couldn't see his face, he wasn't really sure.

Zemen shrugged. "Why not? Now Naruto, go smash him into the ground."

Out in the real world…

Tsuyosa stepped back. He saw a seal that made the gate open, but the seal that appeared was odd. It had the word Earth inscribed in the borders of the seal and the word Shadow inside the seal. Suddenly, all the shadows nearby sped toward Naruto, and began swirling around him, much like the dust that swirled around Tsuyosa a moment ago.

When the shadows cleared, it revealed Naruto with his head down. But he was covered in shadow. Every form, angle, and projection his clothes and his body made were replicated by this shadow. It basically looked like he and his clothes were made of shadow completely.

Naruto's head lifted and revealed his face. The eyes were replaced with glowing eyes and the mouth was twisted in an open smile where the shark-like teeth could be seen.

Then he started laughing.

"He… hehe…. Hehehehe… hahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHA!", Naruto laughed, his laughter becoming more and more maniacal, his voice seeming to come from all directions. Tsuyosa wouldn't lie. He thought he killed the boy and made him become a ghost.

He turned to his daughter. "Kotomi, get out of here, now."

Kotomi's surprise passed when her father spoke and was replaced with determination. "No. Uzumaki-san is just defending himself. Why can't you see that? If you just stop this, he'll stop too."

"Kotomi!", Tsuyosa shouted, "There is no time for arguing. Go now or I'll make you go."

Kotomi's eyes narrowed. She knew that she was right. As long as her father didn't attack, Uzumaki-san wouldn't attack either. She opened her mouth to convince her father.

And blood splattered on her face.

Was it her blood, she wondered. No, she didn't feel any pain.

Was it Uzumaki-san's blood? No, he is still standing where he was.

She froze at the realization at who's blood it was. She saw her father's face contorted with pain. She looked down, and screamed.

A large, black claw was protruding out of her father's abdomen.

Her father was suddenly pulled backwards toward Uzumaki-san. As her father got closer, she could see Uzumaki-san's arm stretched out and connected to the claw that had pierced her father's stomach.

Then Naruto ripped his claw out, spilling intestines all over his feet, and threw Tsuyosa over his head and back kicked him in the chest, sending him flying until he landed and bled all over the grass.

Kotomi felt tears spill over as she slowly understood what had happened. She fell to her knees, crying out loud, not only because her father had died, but also because it was her fault for distracting him.

Her sadness turned to anger as she realized that Naruto had not stopped laughing. She looked at him at rage, and without thinking, charged at him. She tripped after a few steps. After her rage had gotten bigger as it seemed like Naruto was laughing at her, she looked back and saw what she had tripped on.

Her father's scythe!

To what she could tell, he must had dropped it when he was pulled back. She got up, picked up the scythe, and charged again, this time with the scythe over her head, ready to cut down.

Naruto had still been laughing this entire time. He didn't know why, but he couldn't stop. He saw Kotomi running toward her with the Harvester and knew that he had to stop her so she wouldn't hurt herself. He pointed his palm toward her, his hand in a claw form. He felt a tiny fraction of zeher leave and enter Kotomi's shadow, which rose out of the ground and coiled themselves around her legs.

She yelped as she fell toward the ground. She instinctively let go of the scythe as she raised her hands up to protect herself. When she landed, she gave a scream of frustration as she realized her only weapon was flying over Naruto's head.

Then it was like déjà vu all over again. But this time, it was Naruto with something piercing his stomach while it was her father that dealt the strike.

"I'll show you what happens to people who make my daughter cry, motherfucker.", he said, before pulling up the scythe, cutting Naruto in half.

Normally, this is where he would claim victory and walk over to a bar for a good day's job. But there was one thing that bothered him.

The laughing hadn't stop.

The laughter still came from all directions. He fervently looked around everywhere to see where the laughing person was. But after he looked everywhere, he looked back at Naruto's body, and fear gripped his heart.

The two halves of Naruto were standing, each on one foot. Then he felt a spike of zeher that was too familiar to him.

'_No. That … can't be. That zeher, it feels like Zemen-sama's zeher!_, he thought as he held his weapon tighter.

Then both of the bodies started to grow more shadow where he had cut. The shadow kept coming out and forming until _two Narutos had formed!_

They both looked back at him and gave a smile with the sharp teeth. They looked like nightmares.

"Well, Tsuyosa-san,", both Naruto's said in unison, "What now?"

They both disappeared and reappeared, one in front and one behind.

Tsuyosa growled. "I will not be defeated by your kind! Every one of you Shadow reapers will die!", he declared before swinging his scythe overhead and cutting both Naruto's in half; this time, however, they were split horizontally. But, to his fear and frustration, the four halves grew again until four Naruto's were there.

Each one smiled. Then, simultaneously, they all punched Tsuyosa's midsection.

He felt his stomach and intestines rupture from the attack and fell to his knees screaming as the acid inside corroded away his insides. As he tried to deal with the pain as he healed, the four Naruto's lifted their hands up and brought them down to his head.

He felt every bone from his skull to his femur shatter.

He couldn't scream anymore. He went into shock and looked at the four Naruto's who looked like they were ready to finish him. He tried to get up, but unconsciousness soon had him. He closed his eyes as he knew certain death was here.

He shot up from the ground and breathed heavily. He was covered in sweat, he knew as he felt for the broken bones. The good thing was all his bones were healed. The bad thing was he had lost and he didn't know where that Shadow reaper had gone, or so he thought before he heard talking behind him.

He noticed as he turned around that it was dark, meaning he was unconscious for a few hours. He was able to make a fire behind him and two people talking. When his eyes focused, he nearly yelled in surprise.

Kotomi and that reaper were talking. They noticed he was up after a few seconds. Kotomi waved while the reaper yawned.

Tsuyosa marched over and was about to attack, when Naruto pointed his finger toward Kotomi. "Ah, ah, ah. Don't even try it, or my new servant will die."

'_New servant?_, he thought as he realized who he was talking about. "You bastard! Remove the seal from her."

Naruto smiled. "I'll think about it, but go to your daughter for now. She has been worried for some time." When Tsuyosa went to his daughter to check up on her for injures, Naruto remembered how his new servant came to be.

_Flashback_

The four Naruto's merged back into each other until one was left. He was about to close the gate of Shadow and Zemen, when Kotomi ran in between her father and Naruto and put her hands up protectively. "Please, stop! He's beaten. You don't have to kill him."

Naruto was about to open his mouth to say that wasn't on his agenda when he felt his lips move against his will. "Well, I can give you two options. You can stay there and be killed along with your father, or you can become my servant.", he felt himself say.

'_what the?_, he thought. He knew there were only three beings that could control him so he went back into his mind. He felt that the Kyuubi was pretty calm ever since the battle so there was two beings left.

"What is going on?", he shouted as he got closer to the two open gates. Zemen and Shadow turned around. They had been controlling the zeher flowing out of the gate by weaving it so that Naruto could use it properly.

Zemen looked at him with confusion, or so he thought. With the mask, it was hard to tell. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Naruto looked to Shadow who gave an odd smile. He was just bone, remember, so making a smile was weird. "I'm just taking advantage of the situation, that's all."

Zemen looked at Shadow. "What did you do?", he demanded. Shadow's freaky smile grew bigger. "I'm just getting him a servant, that's all."

Zemen laughed. "That's it? Haha, you should have told me."

"Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?", Naruto yelled, getting the two 's attention.

"Well, you see,", Zemen started, "every reaper gets infamous for their killings sometime. By the way, you still have the ten killings for the month to do. But, when a reaper gets too infamous, he needs a servant to basically do things he can't do, like walking into town to get things, meeting with certain people, and even…hehe." Zemen had a perverted tone to his voice. Naruto grew red as he understood what he meant.

"No.", Naruto said.

"Why not?", whined Zemen.

"I'm not going to take advantage of a girl like that, especially not to satisfy your perverted desires."

"Aww.", Zemen said, as he visibly deflated. Shadow just laughed at the spectacle.

"Now, give me back control over my body.", said Naruto.

Shadow shrugged. "Why not? The contract has been forged already and she has been sealed with your mark."

"What?", Naruto yelled as he left his mindscape.

He came back to the sight where Kotomi was wincing at her new mark on her arm. It was an Uzumaki swirl insignia that if one were to look closely they would see at the center in small words "Grim Reaper".

He spent the next half hour on explain to Kotomi what being his servant meant. He felt Zemen amused as the girl was blushing when Naruto started to explain her duties. "See!", Zemen shouted inside Naruto's mind, "She had the same thought as I did!"

_Flashback End_

Tsuyosa walked over and started to demand that he should remove the seal. Naruto shook his head. "No. First, listen to me, then we'll talk."

Tsuyosa huffed, obviously not happy, but sat down in front of Naruto.

"First off,", Naruto started, "I'm not a reaper aligned with Shadow."

Tsuyosa's eyes narrowed. "Don't play dumb with me. I felt his zeher coming off you many times in that Kovo de Morte.", he said.

Naruto nodded. "You're right. You did feel his zeher. But, what I said was true."

Tsuyosa laughed. "So even though you have his zeher, you're not a reaper of Shadow. Don't make me laugh."

"But I just did.", said Naruto. When seeing that Tsuyosa wasn't laughing, he said,

"I'm a reaper aligned with the Grim Reaper himself."

Tsuyosa's eyes widened in surprise, but looked at him in disbelief. But as he thought, he remembered that he did indeed feel Zemen's zeher coming off him.

"So…", Tsuyosa started.

"Like I said before, this was a huge misunderstanding.", Naruto said.

With that, Tsuyosa sighed. "I almost blew it again, didn't I?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but the truth is that you didn't. So don't worry. What I'm still curious about, however, is why you hate Shadow reapers so much?"

Tsuyosa looked up and Naruto saw hate and pain in his eyes.

"Because Shadow reapers killed my family when I was young.", Tsuyosa said.

END

Please review. I have a good idea on how to take this story, but I do like suggestions sometimes. So please review. Come on, I just said it twice. Please? No, then F you. Yes, then well, nothing.


	8. Chapter 7

AN: This is my first ever AN. I never had an AN before. You know why? It was actually for a simple reason really.

I didn't want to.

But now that I've seen many fanfiction works, it seems that everyone has some type of AN, so here's mine.

Uhhhhhhhh…

Bleh.

Now on to the story!

**DIOMWHWTB CH7 **

Naruto sighed and shook his head. "Your family died because of Shadow reapers? What, murder? That's the risk you take when you accept this job. I thought one of your age would now that."

"My age?", said Tsuyosa. "What do you mean 'my age'?", he said, a tick mark on his forehead.

Naruto cleared his throat. "I mean, please explain.", he said with a quick smile. He was happy to see that the older man let go of his irritation on Naruto's observation.

Tsuyosa turned around and faced the fire in front of him. For a few moments, he warmed his hands over the fire, trying to figure out where to start.

"Understand this. My family was killed way before I was chosen as a reaper's apprentice.", Tsuyosa started. Naruto shrugged and said, "Hey, all of us reapers have to kill, right? It was just unlucky that your family was picked to die."

Tsuyosa glared at him. Naruto didn't flinch, but at the same time, felt a pang of guilt. Did he say something wrong?

"Luck, huh?", he simply said. Naruto slowly nodded, trying to not piss him off any further. "Yeahhhh, luck. That's all that was.", he said carefully and slowly, ready to stop mid-sentence if he saw a hint of anger.

Instead, Tsuyosa looked over, not with anger, but sadness in his eyes. "Then tell me this.", he said, trying to hold back a sob. "Was it luck that four Shadow reapers came into my home, tortured my family for hours, before leaving them to die of blood loss?"

Naruto opened his mouth in surprise and shock. Finally, after getting over that, he managed to stutter out, "W-What? N-no. No, no, no. That can't be true. Reapers never travel together."

"Well, apparently, these guys didn't know that because they did travel together and killed my family."

Naruto tried to think it through. "Even if that was true, it is really unlikely that four out of the seven Shadow reapers would have compatible darknesses so that they wouldn't kill each other."

"I told you. It happened.", he said through clenched teeth. "I don't care what you say. You may be right. It Is impossible. But, that doesn't change the fact that it happened."

Naruto started to feel an unusual itch and dull throb of pain all over his body. It seemed that Tsuyosa was causing it, but Naruto had no idea how he was doing that.

Then as suddenly as it came, it went. Tsuyosa let out a deep breath and leaned back a little, looking more relaxed. "Enough about me. I don't want anyone knowing about that part of my past. But, now it's your turn to tell me something."

Naruto nodded. "Fine, shoot."

"Why are you here?" was Tsuyosa's simple reply.

Naruto looked at him with confusion. "I don't understand. You mean, why am I still here? Well, I-"

"No.", Tsuyosa interrupted. "I mean, why are you here in this village?"

With only more confusion, Naruto answered, "I live here. I always did all my life."

Tsuyosa grinned. "Ohh, you should have said so. You're a civilian. That makes a lot of sense. I was a little confused when I saw that headband, but-"

"No, no.", Naruto said, shaking his head, "I'm a ninja."

The laughter of Tsuyosa started to piss Naruto off. "You mind telling me why you thought that was funny? Wait, I'm not sitting in animal shit right now, am I?" Naruto tried his best to crane his neck back to see his backside. But of course, that is anatomically impossible unless your neck was already broken. So Naruto attempted to see his backside for a few minutes until Tsuyosa tapped his shoulder.

"What? I'm trying to see if there's crap on my butt. Can you wait?", Naruto said, impatiently. After a short moment, Naruto growled in frustration. "You know what? I'll do this the easy way." He stood up, made the cross hand seal, and said, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**"

One clone poofed into existence and went around the original. "Nope. Boss, you're clean." With that, the clone dispelled itself.

Naruto smiled to the fact that there was no poo on his pants. But when he bent his head forward to the correct position, he was amused that Tsuyosa had white circles for eyes and an open mouth. Naruto's smile got bigger. "What? Never seen a ninja use a jutsu before?"

Tsuyosa's surprised look turned into a look of disbelief. "Now, I'm the one that's saying it's not possible."

Naruto gave a big grin. "I know. There aren't as many awesome ninjas like me. Don't worry, it's fully possible."

"Not that, you retard.", Tsuyosa meanly spat out. "You have no idea though, do you?"

"About what?"

Tsuyosa shook his head. "It's not that you're are that special or anything. It's just you shouldn't exist."

Naruto's fist clenched as a spark of anger started up in his chest. "You know, the last guy that said that, "You shouldn't exist; you shouldn't be alive" was executed.", he growled.

Tsuyosa looked at him with confusion in his eyes. That made Naruto calm down a little. "What are you talking about, kid? I didn't mean it as a bad thing. It's just that the thing is, many years ago, the Ethereal Reapers had forbidden ninja reapers."

Naruto looked at him, surprised. But, in the inside, he realized that this man didn't know about the Kyuubi, or if he did, didn't either care or know who he was.

"The Ethereal Reapers realized if one who can control chakra, a mixture of mental and physical energies, controlled zeher, a mixture of spiritual and physical energies, then they would become too powerful. All the other reapers wouldn't stand a chance, and if given enough time, all the reapers would start coming out of the Elemental Countries."

"The Ethereal Reapers knew that the Elemental Countries must not gain any more power than now. Currently, the world is in balance. There are many other countries with people of strange abilities. But the range of jutsus is endless. There could be thousands of combinations. So it didn't seem fair to the Ethereal Reapers if the Elemental Countries got a reaper in their forces.", he explained.

Naruto had a blank face for the first part of the explanation. But as he listened, he understood one thing from Tsuyosa.

Ninja Reapers are really powerful.

His grin got even bigger when he figured out that he was the only ninja reaper in existence right now. At the end of the explanation, Naruto just said, "Sweet."

Tsuyosa was not surprised by the boy's reaction. Anyone, except for a certain few, would either go mad with power or just be completely relaxed after learning that they were more powerful than the average folk. He was relieved to see that it was the latter. The former usually end up destroying half the world. I mean, look at Hitler. He was a reaper, a Shadow reaper at the time more specifically. He used the advantage of looking into people's darkness in his favor.

Next thing you know, WWII.

Tsuyosa rubbed his hands together. It was getting a little chilly. He placed his hands a little closer to the crackling fire. "Now", he said, "let's discuss my daughter's servitude" (I actually have no idea if this is the correct word. But it does have servant in it).

"What do you know of reaper servants?", he asked. Naruto shrugged and mumbled 'I don't know'.

Tsuyosa's tick mark returned. "What do you mean "you don't know"? Didn't you learn this from your teacher? And why the hell would you go seal a servant if you don't know what they do?"

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms. "Well, I'm sorry. But I had a crappy teacher. Plus, I didn't even want to seal her. Shadow just took over."

Naruto waited for a response, but it never came. He looked at Tsuyosa and saw that he was looking at him oddly.

"What do you mean Shadow took over?", he asked.

"Do you have shit in your ears? Actually, how would that work? But anyways, Shadow, one of the Ethereal Reapers, the reapers aligned with him you want to kill, you know who I'm talking about, right? He took over my body and made the seal against my will."

Tsuyosa then stared for a moment, took his pinkie finger, cleaned out his ear (which was clean already), and said, "Repeat that for me."

"Huh.", Naruto said, "You don't have shit in your ears. Interesting."

'_How is it interesting that I __**don't**__ have shit in my ears?_, thought Tsuyosa. "So what you're telling me is that Shadow took over your body and made my daughter your servant?"

"Uhhh… I think I just said the same exact thing.", Naruto said, "I'm sorry, but I have to ask. Are you deaf and/or retarded?"

Tsuyosa stood up and grabbed him by the collar. "You know, I'm really losing my patience with you."

Naruto looked down at Tsuyosa's hands on the front of his shirt. "And what part of this says you still have patience?"

Tsuyosa was about to throttle the boy when a feminine voice intervened. "That's enough, Tou-san!"

Naruto waved. "Hey, Kotomi." Tsuyosa had not let go of him yet, so it was a little odd that Naruto was still smiling. However, Kotomi didn't acknowledge Naruto's response to her arrival. She just stared at her father with a look Naruto had seen before.

'_Geez, that look reminds me of Sakura's look right before she starts yelling and tries to kill me._, thought Naruto.

Kotomi spoke up, "I made my choice, tou-san. I don't care what you do and why we're kicked out of villages all the time because it is important to you. But when you start attacking people who I already said won't hurt anyone, that's when I start to stick my nose in everyone's business. Now, tell me why you're trying to kill Uzumaki-san again."

Tsuyosa threw Naruto to the ground, who's hand and landed in the fire, and turned to Kotomi. "You stupid girl! Do you even know what you agreed to?"

Kotomi stood her ground. "I know perfectly. I made the contract to be Uzumaki-san's servant."

"Did you know that he could make you do anything, and you would have to obey? He could send you to your death just for the fun of it."

Kotomi shook her head. "No, I don't think he would. Look at him, tou-san. Does he look like someone who would send someone to their death?", she said as she pointed to the spot where Naruto is, or was. Both Tsuyosa's noticed three things. First, Naruto wasn't near the fire anymore. Second, half the entire forest was on fire which meant that it ignited when they were arguing. Third, Naruto was trying to get the fire off his hands and was rubbing his hands against a tree. When the tree burst into flames, whatever fire that was on Naruto's hands but were snuffed out by the rubbing came back, making Naruto go to the next tree. A sweatdrop traveled down both of the Tsuyosa's foreheads.

"No.", Tsuyosa said, "Right now, he doesn't seem like the person to do that. Right now, he seems like he's a escaped mental patient."

"Uhhhh…. Tou-san?", replied Kotomi nervously as she watched the destruction that Naruto was causing, "Don't you think that we should help him?"

Tsuyosa sighed. He really didn't want to. But if this went on, Naruto would set fire to the entire village before the small fire on his hand went out. Instead of answering Kotomi, he controlled the water of the nearby lake using his zeher and made it rise up. After moving it over the inferno Naruto started, he let the water drop, effectively drenching everything and putting out the fires including the one on Naruto's hand.

Naruto felt crushed when the water first hit him. Kotomi was afraid that the weight of the water had killed him, but was relieved when Naruto sat back up and waved. He let out a tiny "I'm okay".

Kotomi whispered to her father, "Why didn't he go to the lake directly? I mean, you used the water against him in the fight before so he knew that there was water nearby, right?"

Tsuyosa just shook his head. He felt that if he tried to understand half of what had happened ever since Naruto showed up, he would need an entire bottle of aspirin. Instead, he grabbed Kotomi by the arm and started to drag her off. "Come on, we have to pack for you."

Kotomi and Naruto, who had rejoined the two, both said, "Why?"

Tsuyosa slapped his forehead. "Right, sorry. I forgot. You don't know about servants." He turned to Naruto. "For servants to do their duties, it was usually best if the servant lived with their master. Now, it's required."

At that time, Tsunade was sitting at her desk. She gave Shizune the day off, telling her that work had been slow. The truth was she was drinking away, trying to forget some things and at the same time wait for Kakashi to come back.

She was about to take another sip when:

"WHAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

A huge yell came from the direction of the training ground. Tsunade jumped a little in surprise, making her breathe in a little. She immediately bent over and started to cough the alcohol out of her trachea.

After she had stopped choking, she sat back at her seat. Not a second later, there was a knock.

"Come in!", she ordered, and a chunin walked in. "Umm, Hokage-sama?", the chunin said nervously, "The council wants to talk about the return of Uzumaki Naruto."

"What?", Tsunade shouted, "How did they figure out?"

"Umm, one of the gate guards was drunk and blurted it out to the entire village."

Tsunade sighed. She was really not in the mood for a council meeting. "Fine, give me a few minutes."

She waited for a those few minutes, and when she realized that Kakashi was not coming, stood up and went to the council meeting room.

As soon as she entered, she could tell that the councilmembers were talking before. She sat down and waved her hand as to start the meeting.

The first person to speak up was Hyuga Hiashi. "Tsunade-sama, is it true that Uzumaki Naruto has returned to Konoha?"

Tsunade merely nodded and the entire room burst into shouting.

"Kill the demon!" was thrown around a lot. Tsunade just yawned. It wasn't like these cowardly civilians would do something. The ninja council was surprisingly quiet, however it might just be the loud, obnoxious shouting of the civilian council that made it hard to say or ask anything.

A poof was heard next to her. She looked at the person who had just arrived. "Kakashi, you're late as usual."

Kakashi gave a little eye smile, where his eye does that upside-down U thing. "I'm sorry, but spying on Naruto took a lot longer than I thought."

After Naruto had left the hospital, Tsunade ordered Kakashi to spy on Naruto to see what other abilities he had gained and if the Kyuubi was responsible for any.

She slammed her fist into the wall behind her, making everyone shut up.

"Now, Kakashi. Report."

He nodded. "After doing surveillance, I saw that Naruto had left for a duel of some kind. I watched him fight with a civilian with unusual abilities."

"And? What's your conclusion?"

"Naruto is not being controlled by the Kyuubi." With that, a couple of civilians relaxed; however, most civilians grumbled under their breath, saying things like, "Maybe not now, but…"

Kakashi leaned down to Tsunade's ear and whispered, "But, I can't say for sure that Naruto isn't being controlled. His skills with these abilities he picked up are beyond Chunin, maybe jounin."

Tsunade nodded at Kakashi's reasoning and yelled, "Meeting adjourned." She grabbed her sake and went back to her office muttering, "That meeting was too short. Waste of my time."

She didn't notice Kakashi walk back with her to her office. She only noticed when she sat down and saw the copy-ninja standing in front of her.

"You still have something else to say?", asked Tsunade. He nodded before reaching into his pouch and taking out a piece of paper with an intricate seal on it. Tsunade's face showed a look of recognition and surprise for a brief moment, but Kakashi caught it and said, "You know what this is then."

Tsunade snorted. "Who doesn't? That seal can record videos and later show them to someone else. It was made after seeing the video cameras the outside world had."

"Since you know what these are then, you'll want to see this." With that, Kakashi poofed out of the room.

Tsunade took another sip of her sake and activated the seal with her chakra. A faint image created from the chakra appeared in place of the seal and showed her most of the battle between that civilian and Naruto. After the video ended, she swiveled around in her chair and looked at one of the pictures hanging over her head.

"You would be proud of him, Sarutobi-sensei. He's grown strong."

"Tsunade-baachan!", she heard behind her. She turned back and looked at the blond that was so obnoxiously calling her.

"What?", she shouted, "Be quick about it. You're giving me a headache."

Naruto pointed to her bottle of sake. "Well, maybe if stop drinking that, you wouldn't have a headache and actually be pleasant to be around."

"What?", she asked, with a tone that said 'say that again, just to make sure I'm beating the crap out of you for the right reason'.

"Nothing!", Naruto said quickly, "Anyways, I need your help."

"No."

"Wait! You didn't even hear what I need your help on. I just need a new house."

"What's wrong with your apartment?"

"Welllll", Naruto said, dragging out the well so long, you could see Tsunade's vein in her forehead. "Spit it out, or I'll throw you out the window."

"Man, grouchy. See, the sake is making you more unpleasant."

"Naruto!"

"All right. Geez, just making an observation. But, I kind of have someone who needs to live with me now."

"Like a friend? I can give them a hotel room or something."

"No, no. Not a friend. More of a… servant."

…

…

…

"Huh?"

END

AN: heheheHeHeHeHEHEHEHEHEHE (clear throat) Sorry about that. Insanity could be a little annoying sometimes. But anyways, tell me what you guys think of the story so far. I really don't care if it's a flame, compliment, threat, or all of the above. Just press the review thing at the bottom.

You know you want to.

…

…

Do it.


	9. Chapter 8

AN: Thanks so much for your reviews. They gave me a little boost and I think this chapter is a little longer than others. Keep reviewing, and I'll keep trying.

**DIOMWHWTB CH8**

Danzo sat at his desk in his office in the ANBU Root HQ. He looked across his desk to meet the gaze of most of the civilian council members and said, "I understand. But we can't go and just assassinate him anymore."

"Why not?", shouted one of the civilians.

"According to one of the Root that had witnessed the battle between this civilian and Uzumaki had said that the jinchuuriki had grown much stronger. He's not a helpless little kid anymore. If we were to send an assassin, he might be able to trace him back somehow and make many problems."

"Then what do you suggest, Danzo-sama?", asked another civilian.

Danzo let a little smile come upon his face. "We do what we tried to do so many years ago. But this time, Sarutobi won't interfere. And Tsunade-hime doesn't need to be informed of this."

"Who will we send? Most of the ninja council members looked indifferent about that demon brat. Who can we trust?"

Danzo groaned at the stupidity of these people. "We will not be forcing him. If we did, he would beat most of the ninja back. Only the jounin and ANBU may be strong enough, and they are always on missions."

"I don't understand.", said a civilian in the back. "What do we do differently then?"

Danzo's tiny smile became regular size. "We persuade him of course."

Tsunade looked at the four standing in front of her. "Team 7, you have a mission. There has been sight of some bandits near the border of the Fire Country. Your job is to wipe them out. Understood?"

Sasuke smirked. "That's all we have to do?"

"No. There has been some rumors."

"And what might these rumors be, hokage-sama?", asked Kakashi.

"Apparently, the bandits had gathered together under one leader. This leader of theirs is intelligent, but brutal. He has been gathering bandits for some time now, and now he has a considerable force. We are not sure how many people he has, but it might prove to be a challenge to you, Uchiha."

Sasuke gave a little grin. Ever since his curse mark was removed, he could think very much more clearly. But even if he could, he still wanted to kill Itachi. But this time, he'll do it Naruto's way.

"And where are we going, Tsunade-sama?", asked Sakura.

"It's a town between the Fire and Earth Countries. There have been numerous bandit sightings, but there are more in this town than any other. It's some place called Kuraiyuki."

It seemed that no one caught it, but Tsunade did. She caught the little smile Naruto showed for a moment. '_What are you thinking about right now?_, she thought.

If Tsunade was asking the question "What were you thinking about just a moment ago?", she might get a good answer. Because right now, all Naruto thought was:

"Hehe, funny."

This made him sound like an idiot. So she did not ask the right question. But if the other question was asked, she would have gotten this.

_Flashback_

"Please train me!", Naruto said, bowing slightly. He had just asked Tsuyosa to train him in the Zemen techniques.

"No." was his reply.

"Why not?", Naruto whined.

"First, you piss me off. I don't care if you're not a Shadow reaper. You piss me off greatly."

"Tou-san. Be nice.", said Kotomi.

"And second, I can't. I swore to try and leave this life behind. I shouldn't even be doing this with you now. But that's because it was part of my life before this reaper job. So, no." Seeing Naruto become sad and deflated, he added, "But I do know who might be able to teach you."

With that, Naruto perked up. "Really? Who?"

"My old teacher. We're still in contact, and from the most recent letter, she's in a town called Kuraiyuki. She's the leader of a group that goes around and assassinates bandits. But the bandits she's chasing now are different. Apparently, a reaper had gathered many bandits together and now is leading them. She's been following them for months now and finally told me that they stopped near that town."

"Right." Naruto said before standing up. "Well, I got to go."

"Oh? And where are you going in such a rush?"

Naruto gave a little embarrassed smile. "Well you see, my current living quarters aren't big enough for two. So I'm going to baa-chan and bother her until she gives me a new house."

"Your grandmother? Does she sell real estate?"

"Nope. She's the Hokage. Bye!" With that, Naruto left by the same way he came. The shadows covered him and dragged him into the earth. Then when the shadows hit the earth, it split into four and sped off into different directions, leaving both of Tsuyosa's open-mouthed and wide eyed.

_Flashback End_

And that's what he did. After getting over the initial shock of what Naruto had told her, she flatly refused. Then Naruto, using the Kage Bunshin, took her sake and ran off with it. She would chase him and try to pummel him only to find out that it was a bunshin. This repeated many times.

Afterwards, Tsunade gave him a new house with plenty of area around it, got her sake back, and had to apologize for destroying half the buildings on the street.

"You may leave in two hours. Here. This is the address that you will be staying at in Kuraiyuki.", Tsunade said, giving Kakashi a slip of paper.

"Hai!", they all said. Kakashi looked at his students. "Gather all your supplies you need. Pack some food just in case and whatever else you need. Meet at the front gate at the appointed time." With that, Kakashi poofed out. The three genin of Team 7 simply left using the door.

"Kotomi!", called Naruto when he stuck his head through front door of his house.

"Hai, Master?", he heard back.

"I'm going to be going on a mission on a few days. Can you take care of the house for me? And don't worry. There should be enough food in the fridge so you won't have to go shopping.", yelled Naruto.

"Hai!"

He walked into his room and packed some instant ramen, some ration bars, a couple bottles of water, and a scroll. This scroll was his emergency food scroll. He packed enough food in there for a month just in case. He put all this into his blue backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and walked to the door.

"Don't waste too much money with shopping! Just because it's a lot doesn't mean it's infinite!", he called before opening the door.

"I know that, Master! Stop treating me like a kid!"

"Sorry!", he yelled before shutting the door. As he walked to the gates of Konoha, he smiled at the memory on how he got his house. He took one look back at his two story house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a huge living room and kitchen and let the memory fill his mind.

_Flashback_

Tsunade rubbed her temples. "So you're telling me you got a servant."

Naruto nodded. "Yep."

"She needs to stay with you."

"Yep."

"But there isn't enough room in your apartment."

"Yep!"

"So you need a bigger house?"

"Yep!"

"Get out!"

"Aww, baa-chan, please."

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"… how about now?"

"Naruto!", she yelled, "You don't even understand the beginning of the problems you brought with you."

"I don't care. My job is to create problems, not to understand them."

'_Ain't that the truth._, Tsunade thought. "Naruto. For you to have a house, first you need money. Without money, no can do."

"Aww, please?"

"That's enough!", she shouted, as she slammed the table. But as she did, the two both heard the creaking of hinges before a large sack hit Tsunade on the head.

As soon as it did, Naruto put up his hands defensively and said, "I didn't do it!"

The Godaime rubbed her head and glared at the sack that gave her this pain. But her eyes widened as she looked at the letter attached. '_It's from Sarutobi-sensei!_, she thought, surprised. She began to read.

_Dear whoever this may concern,_

_If you are reading this, then I must be dead, you must be the new Hokage, and you must be pretty smart to be able to open the lock behind the my picture above you._

'_Picture? What picture?_, Tsunade thought before looking up. Like the letter said, the Sandaime's picture had swung open on its rusty hinges.

'_Smart? I wonder how he would react if he knew that I opened it by repeatingly hitting the table, making the shock from the hits loosen the lock._ She continued reading.

_If you look inside, there is a large sum of money inside. This money is to go to Uzumaki Naruto. After I had found out that his savings were discreetly siphoned away because the bank refused to hold his money, I held it in my account. Once it got big enough, I placed it in this sack. Please give it to him ASAP. It's my way of saying sorry to the boy._

_From, Sarutobi._

Tsunade gave the note to Naruto. When he finished reading, he said, "So that's mine? How much?"

Tsunade shrugged. She grabbed the bag, loosened the ties on it, and peered inside. Her eyes went wide as she shouted, "Holy SHIT! How does he make this much?"

_Flashback End_

Naruto had to literally beat away the Godaime Hokage of Konoha with his scabbard so she wouldn't use it for her purposes, like paying her debts or satisfying her sake need.

Before he realized it, he was at the front gates. He saw that Sasuke and Sakura were there, but unsurprisingly, no Kakashi.

"Hello, Naruto.", said a voice behind him. Naruto, without turning around, said, "I know that voice. But the problem is, unless it's a client, that person doesn't show up early. I'm sorry, but you have to die now."

He turned around with a smiling Kakashi. "Come on, Naruto. I'm allowed to be on time every once on a while, right?"

All three of his students shook their head. Kakashi hung his head. Was he that bad?

Yes, yes you are.

Kakashi walked forward and lead his team to Kuraiyuki. Now, I would like to say that they met some people, had a great battle, and won. But, no. This may be fanfiction, but I like to stay with what really happened.

So, nothing. Nothing happened.

They got to the town and found it odd. Lights were on and they saw the occasional people from time to time, but it wasn't crowded at all and all the people on the streets were men.

'_Must be because of the bandits scaring everyone here._, Kakashi thought.

They soon arrived at the address and knocked. The door opened to show a women in her 30's, wearing a white apron. She had long, dark brown hair that was tied in a ponytail at her shoulders. She wore a white shirt and brown pants under the apron. To Naruto, it was a little too common, but with the bandits here, he guessed that this woman had found the cheapest clothing. He could tell too because her eyes were very soft and kind, but inside he could see a little hardness as if she saw things she wanted to forget.

"Hello. We're the ninja from Konoha. Are you Moeru Kira-san?", greeted Kakashi. Her eyes brightened as she moved back to let the ninja inside. "Thank you for coming. Yes, I am Kira-san."

"Well, Kiya-san, thank you for accommodating us, but do you mind if we ask you a question? Why are there no people in the streets?"

Kira looked a little down before returning to her kind look. "Well, usually it is crowded, but it is usually around the time that the bandits strike, so we're just being wary." When she saw that Kakashi wasn't going to ask another question, she called, "Kenta!" She looked back at the ninjas. "My son will show you where you'll sleep tonight. You're lucky. We used to be a hotel before the bandits came so we have numerous baths and beds. Just follow Kenta and pick a room you want." As soon as she finished, a boy that seemed to be around 8 years old came down. "Oh, you must be the ninjas. Come on. Your rooms are up here."

Kenta led Team 7 upstairs. As they went up, Naruto and Kenta chatted. He was surprised to know that this boy had a strong sense of justice. He told him that all he could do right now is replace his dad in the family and take care of his mom. But as soon as he got strong enough, he was going to be a warrior so these bandits could never come again. During this, Kenta asked about the whisker marks and touched them. Naruto, on the outside, didn't look like it mattered, but in the inside, he was having trouble not blushing. He wasn't used to the gentle touch the boy had when he touched each mark, laughing as he realized that they were just marks.

As they were talking, Naruto looked back at Kakashi and said, "Doesn't this remind you of the mission we had in Wave?"

Kakashi thought about it for a moment. There was ruthless bandits with a heartless leader, they were staying at a home where the father or father figure had died, and there was a young kid here. Kakashi smiled. "Yeah, you're right. Ah, the good old days."

Naruto looked back with a grin. "Kakashi-sensei, it wasn't that long ago. Geez, how old are you to be thinking that?"

Kakashi and Naruto laughed. Then Naruto said, "But at least this kid isn't some whiny kid that got on my nerves."

"What do you mean?", asked Kenta.

"Well, you see, we had a mission very similar to this. But at first, he was the complete opposite that you. He whined that no one could be stronger than the leader Gato and didn't bother to do anything."

"At first? What happened?"

"Naruto got to him. He's got a special talent of changing everyone for the better.", said Kakashi.

"That or getting on everyone's nerves.", said Sakura.

"Aw, I'm not that bad, right?", asked Naruto. He felt a slight déjà vu and disappointment when all three of his teammates nodded.

"Well, we're here. Pick any room.", announced Kenta.

It was a hall that had five doors on each side of its walls. Kenta led the ninja to the end of the hall and pointed to another part of the building. "There are all the baths. It should be marked for which one is female bath and which is the male."

Kenta walked back to the stairs and waved. "Bye! I have to go to sleep. It's my bedtime. See you in the morning!"

Sasuke smirked. "He reminds me of you."

"Really?", asked Naruto.

"Yeah, he's too happy and annoying."

"Hey."

The next morning, everyone got up and met in the cafeteria. It was smaller than most cafeterias but it was cozier. The floor and ceiling was made of wood. The lights were on, but the candles were lit, giving the room a warm feeling.

They saw the food already laid out and began eating. During which, Kira walked in. "Good morning. I hope you found our rooms to be what you needed."

They all nodded. "It was so warm in there. I felt like I was in a big blanket.", said Sakura.

"That's just weird. Wouldn't you suffocate if you were?", asked Naruto.

"Shut up, Naruto. I meant that figuratively. Of course you would suffocate."

Sasuke smirked. "Getting dumber every moment, are you Naruto?"

Kenta walked in to see a verbal fight beginning between the two males. He sighed. "Hotel rules, no fighting."

The two boys calmed down and returned to their meals. Naruto asked, "Wha o we oing to dai?"

"Don't speak with your mouth full!", Sakura yelled, disgusted that when he said the T, food shot out of his mouth.

Naruto swallowed and repeated his question. "What are we doing today?"

Kakashi put his silverware down and thought for a moment. "Kira-san?", he addressed the woman, "do you know where the bandit camps may be hiding?"

She nodded. "It's no secret. It's just no one can chase those bandits out. Here, let me bring a map." She left the cafeteria, Kenta following her.

Kakashi looked at his students. "The plan is, we'll scout the camps today, figure out what to do so we can attack tonight. Got it?"

Naruto rose his hand. "Umm, Kakashi-sensei, you might want to take Sakura and Sasuke with you."

Sakura looked away in shame. She knew that she was the weakest. But Sasuke looked over at Naruto with rage clearly in his eyes. "We don't need a babysitter, dobe. You might need one, but I can take care of myself."

"You sure? Can you kill?"

"Kill?"

"Ah, I see.", Kakashi said, "You afraid that their first kills might be too traumatizing for them and leave them open. But what about you?"

Naruto shrugged. "I've seen the old man kill before."

Sasuke and Sakura were wondering where the Sandaime would kill so that Naruto would be there, but Kakashi knew. When Naruto was in a beating, the Sandaime would usually execute the punishment there which was death. If Naruto had been conscious, he would have seen all that.

"Fine. We leave in a few minutes as soon as Kira-san comes with the map."

When they came back, they wrote on the maps to indicate how strong each camp was. To their surprise, the bandits were split up into two camps. One was near here, the other was farther away.

Kakashi looked at Naruto. "Do you think that you could take care of the nearer one?"

Naruto grinned. "Of course. I am going to be future Hokage. Some bandits will give me no trouble."

Kakashi nodded. "Good, then we'll take the one farther away. Hopefully, we'll get there before you attack and they send a message."

"So when do we strike?", asked the oddly eager Sasuke.

"We can go now, or after dinner." As soon as the words left his mouth, three growls were heard. "After dinner than."

Naruto stared at the camp, observing all the bandits' positions so he knew where to strike. He smiled. '_I was a little afraid that I would have to get my ten monthly kill in Konoha. Phew! Now, let's see, how should I do this?_

He searched around until he found a bandit that looked stronger and had better clothes one. '_Looks like a temporary leader for this camp. Hope I'm right!_ With that, he added a little zeher to the darkness around him. The darkness engulfed him and then spit him out. Naruto came out with different clothes on. It was very similar to Amari's outfit except the mask was one of those drama masks. You know, there are two masks, one that's smiling and one that's frowning. He had the smiling mask that was black. Confirming that everything was there, he blended into the darkness. What better shade to blend into darkness is there but darkness?

A man entered into his tent. Inside was the loots of the camp and a throne that he had made so he could look the part of being a leader. But there was already one more person in there. He smiled. "Hello, Leina. Ready for our nightly _exercises?_

The girl in there tried to get out of her bounds. Every afternoon, a bandit would choose one girl at random and drag her in this tent. All the other girls knew what would happen to any girl that was brought into a tent.

Rape.

She wore just enough clothing to barely hide her privates. The man walked over, and much to her disgust, licked his lips as if he was hungry. She could see that hunger in his eyes too.

Leina started to feel tears rolling down her face. It was hopeless. She couldn't get out. The man gave a little laugh. "Already crying? We haven't even started. Don't worry. With me, this shouldn't hurt. No, I guarantee that you'll enjoy this." He enjoyed the fear Leina showed, but froze as he realized that the fear had changed. It wasn't directed at him anymore. It was directed behind his shoulder.

"Who-", he started. But he couldn't finish as a boy wearing all black and a smiling mask slashed his throat open with his claw. He hit the ground, trying to breathe or scream, but his airway and vocal cords were cut. He bled silently until death claimed him.

Naruto went over to the girl that was tied up and cut her binds. "Are you okay?", he asked. She nodded, before giving him a huge hug. "Thank you.", she said, crying into his shoulder. She noticed that the texture of his clothing was odd. It felt like glass like it had no wrinkles or edges. It was just smooth.

"Are there more of you?", he asked. She nodded. "I can lead you to them." Naruto stood up and pulled the girl up with him. He then stood still as he tried to figure out the best solution for this.

'_I would usually use Kage Bunshin, but I need this to be quick. If I use them and alert one of the guards, they might hold the other girls hostage. Hmm, maybe I should open the gate again._

He decided that was the best since they were brutal, yet quick. He closed his eyes. Leina looked at her savior confused. Why wasn't he leaving the tent? She jumped back in surprise as shadows leaped out from the corners and engulfed him.

Naruto, when the shadows went back, looked little different this time. The mask he had on was removed to show his monster-looking face. But other than that, since he was wearing dark clothing at the time, not much changed.

Then he went to the loot the leader had and found a kitchen knife. He stabbed himself in the stomach and dragged it up. Leina nearly cried out because her savior was killing himself. She had to rub her eyes to make sure what she was seeing. There were two of them now.

Then the two cut the same way and there were four. They did this until there was sixteen of them. One of them looked over and grabbed Leina. It said, "Just point." Then the other fifteen left. She was confused when she didn't hear any fighting outside. She looked at the one that stayed behind. That one opened his coat and took it off, making him look like how he was when he fought Tsuyosa. He threw the coat over Leina. Then he took her hand and walked outside.

She nearly cried in surprise when she saw the two guards looking at her. But for some reason, they didn't notice her. She felt a slight tug on the arm and looked at Naruto. He looked at her expectantly. She whispered, "Sorry" and began leading the way.

They eventually got to the tent that she was imprisoned in. She dragged Naruto in. Naruto noticed that there was only a cage there with thirty other women inside, wearing as much clothing as Leina. He let go of her hand and walked over. The girls moved back in fright and that was when Naruto noticed the two guards in there. The two guards were teasing the girls with threats and sexual comments, which had been pissing the girls off. But when they moved back in fright, the guards thought they had said something and tried to remember what it was so they could have more fun.

They never remembered because they were impaled in the stomach by a claw. They looked back and saw a monster with its claws in them and the girl they had thrown in the boss's tent. They tried to yell for help, but the claws turned into tendrils that shot up and entered their mouth. They gagged as they felt it go down their throat. Suddenly, the tendril turned into spikes and shot out, making tiny holes in the guard's vocal cords and airway.

They fell to the floor as soon as Naruto took out his claws. That's when Leina heard the screaming. Naruto gave a demonic smile. Now that the girls were safe, the fifteen copies of him striked. He went over to the cage and slashed the lock open. He opened the cage door but was confused to see the girls inch away from it than walking out.

Leina, understanding what was going on, took of the coat and revealed herself. "Come on. He's a good guy. He helped me get out and killed the leader." The girls smiled when they saw Leina and left the cage. Naruto looked at them. "Wait here, until you stop hearing fighting outside. I'll be gone by then. I need to meet with my team, so just walk back to Kuraiyuki. Okay?"

They all nodded. Leina walked up to Naruto and asked, "What is your name so we can know who saved us?"

Naruto thought for a moment. He was pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to be revealing his identity. But he did come up with a nickname just now. It was something Tsuyosa said when Naruto asked how he looked when he opened the gates. Tsuyosa said he looked like a …

"Nightmare. My name is Nightmare.", Naruto said before running out the tent.

He was happy to notice that most of the bandits were gone. He summoned all the clones back, who merged back into him, and closed the gates. He then began walking to where the rest of his team was when he heard a twig snap. He rushed over and found one bandit that was unharmed and running away. Naruto appeared in front of him, scaring the bandit.

Then the bandit did the one thing he didn't expect the bandit to do. The bandit started to beg. "Please! Let me go. I'm new. The bandits here dragged me into their group. I didn't want to rape the girls. Please, spare my life. I don't want to die."

Naruto snorted. "No one wants to die, retard." But seeing the bandits pitifulness, he left saying, "Fine. Leave this bandit life, and I'll spare you. But if we meet again, and you have not followed my condition, I'll rip your legs off and beat you with them."

He arrived at the other camp and was again happy to see that the bandits were taken care off. He walked over to where Kakashi and the slightly green Sakura and Sasuke were. "You were fast."

Kakashi smiled. "We did have some help.", as he waved toward a direction. Naruto followed Kakashi's gaze and saw a girl around his age that was wearing white clothing. She had light brown hair with a purple clip on one of the bangs on the side. (I really don't want to describe it so imagine a female's Assassin's clothing from Assassin's Creed. I'll post a picture on my profile for this.)

She smiled at him. "Hello, reaper."

Naruto smiled back. "I'm guessing your Tsuyosa's teacher."

She nodded. "And I'm guessing that you're my new student."

Kakashi looked at him confused, but Naruto ignored it. He just went over to the girl and put out his hand. "Uzumaki Naruto. Codename: Nightmare."

She shook his hand. "Jinso Mari. Codename: Silent. Nice to meet you."

END

AN: Please review. I mean it.

Or else.

I mean it.


	10. Chapter 9

AN: I do not own Naruto. I am currently looking for a beta reader because while my ideas are **awesome**, my writing is not. So I want to make the story read better for all of my faithful readers out there.

Naruto grumbled as he turned the page of his textbook. '_Why do I have to study? Sasuke doesn't have to study. Sakura, well she doesn't need to. But why me?_, he whined as he looked at the diagram of the Calvin Cycle in his AP Biology textbook.

_Flashback_

"Student?", said Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi simultaneously.

Mari looked at Naruto. "You did not tell them?" It was more of an observation than a question.

Naruto shrugged. "It doesn't really come up in a conversation."

Mari looked at the three non-reapers. "Yes, student. This boy here is very special. My former student had sent me a letter saying that he needed training in techniques called Zemen techniques."

"I see.", Kakashi said. "Would you mind explaining to me what these techniques are?"

Mari snorted. "Wouldn't matter if I did. Only six people right now in this world other than me can use these techniques. Unless you count Uzumaki, then you would have seven."

Kakashi got a little evil glint in his eye that Mari didn't like. "Okay, Jinso-san. I'll just grab my team and go then." Sasuke and Sakura attempted to protest but Kakashi grabbed the two and leaped back into the woods, heading toward Kira's house. But when Kakashi thought that he was far enough in so Naruto and Mari couldn't see him, he turned around and landed on a branch far above where the two were.

"What are you doing?", whispered Sakura harshly, "Kakashi-sensei, it's rude to spy."

"Don't worry. If I'm right, this might be fun to watch."

"Hn. How is watching that dobe going to be fun? I rather train.", said the avenger.

Kakashi turned to him. "Sasuke, trust me. This will interest you too. Now, pipe down and be quiet."

"You know, they're still here.", said Mari in a hushed tone.

"I know. I can still sense Sasuke's darkness.", said Naruto, out loud, not caring if anyone hears. "But how did you know?"

"I can sense the elements needed for the human body. There are three sets of the elements nearby. The amount of each one matches the ones of your friends."

"Cool. Now, can we start training?"

Mari looked up and down as she examined Naruto. "You're an impatient brat, aren't you?"

Naruto put his hands on his hips and put on an insulted face. "How dare you?", he said, but in a joking tone, "I will not stand here and be called a brat by someone who's not that older than me. Good day, ma'am."

Mari let out a laugh. "Don't be fooled by looks, boy. I might look like seventeen, but I'm about 156 years old."

"WHAT!", came from the trees above.

Mari leaned over and whispered, "How do we ignore that? Should we acknowledge their presence now?"

Naruto looked up and then looked back at Mari with a confused look, "I… I don't… know."

Just then, the three spies jumped down, one of them with an embarrassed look (cough_Sakura_cough). Naruto waved.

"I'm guessing that you knew we were still here again, right Naruto?", Kakashi asked.

"Yep!"

"You know, I knew too.", said Mari. Naruto just waved her off dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. No one wants to hear an old hag talk."

Naruto suddenly realized that everything went dark and something tasted like tree bark. And he should know. This one time when he was chased into the woods by a mob, he tried eating it. The taste isn't too bad, but the splinters nearly pierced his tongue.

Then he felt an odd throbbing pain in his back. He put everything together and realized that Mari must have punched him in the back. That punch sent him flying into this tree, face first.

He put his hands on either side of the tree he was in and pushed until he got out. Then he glared at Mari who at the moment was sharpening her knives. "You see, I really hate being called that.", she said. "So the next time you do, I'll use this knife instead of my fist, **got it?**", she finished with a monster-like tone.

Naruto could only nod as he hid behind Sakura. "She's scarier than you.", he whispered to the pink-haired girl.

The next moment he found himself in the same predicament but now the pain was in his stomach.

When he got out, Mari picked up a bag and threw it to Naruto. Naruto grunted as the bag hit his chest. "What's in here? It's fricking heavy!", Naruto complained.

Mari didn't answer so Naruto opened the bag.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura started to worry about Naruto. He had just opened the bag and now is just staring with a dumb look on his face at his contents. It was a minute until Naruto looked back up and said with the same expression on his face, "Why?"

Mari smiled. "Well, you know that Zemen techniques are used to control the terrestrial things, right?" He nodded.

"Well, you have to control every little thing to be able to use the techniques. Like, you could change aluminum into gold, but you have to understand how that works. Like, you add some protons and electrons in so that you have a stable gold." He nodded again. "But what's that got to do with the stuff in here?", Naruto asked.

Mari gave a little evil smile. "Well if you have to understand how that works, you need to study that stuff, right?"

Naruto dropped the bag. The bag landed with a thud, surprising everyone on how loud it was. Then Naruto lifted his arms up over his head and yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

_Flashback End_

He really hated Mari now. Inside the bag were three thick textbooks. There was an AP Bio textbook, a APES textbook, and a AP Chem textbook. He had created two shadow clones and now they were looking at the other two books while he read the AP Bio book. He would create another shadow clone for this book too, but Mari said firmly that he wouldn't be able to start training without the understanding of the world around him.

Naruto sighed. It wasn't that he was dumb and he probably couldn't understand this stuff. He just really hated studying. The Academy was hell in his opinion with all those tests and facts. He shuddered at the memory.

Finally after a week, he finished all the books. The thing was that he usually forgot most of it, but ever since he went into his mindscape the first time when he met the Kyuubi, he found out that memories never go away. There just stored somewhere, but his brain can't retrieve them. So inside his mindscape now is a library, filled with books that have his memories on everything he read.

He walked over to where Mari was and put on his angry face. Why? He was angry at what he saw. He spent an entire week in his room, studying, working hard. And here she was goofing off. For some reason, knowing that he suffered and she had a good time pissed him off.

Mari was at the table in the cafeteria of Kira's house, listening to the stories that Team 7 had to tell her. She figured out quickly that when Uzumaki was around, unpredictable yet funny things happened. She noticed said person walk in with a not so pleasant look on his face. "Whoa, why are you so grumpy?", she asked, knowing full well why he was.

Naruto just grunted as he passed her and went to Kira to ask for food. Mari just snickered. It seems that her new student already hates her. Good. She likes that. It makes life more… interesting.

He dropped the heavy books on the table, making the entire table jump, and sat down and asked Kira for food.

Mari looked at the books and said, "Why are you putting these books here? Shouldn't you be studying?", she asked, prodding him to get an interesting reaction.

Interesting indeed. Naruto just looked at the plate of food that was placed in front of him and said, "I finished."

"Heh?", came from Mari as she looked at Naruto with wide eyes. She immediately shook her head and said, "Nice joke. I know you didn't finish, because it takes at least three years to memorize all that."

"Ask me any question, and I'll answer it."

"Any?", her eyes still holding doubt.

"Any question from any book."

"Fine", she said as she picked up the top book. It was the AP Biology book. She thought for a moment. '_Let's see. If he was trying to get out of more studying, what would he do? He'd probably read the front part of the book and the back so he can answer the first question I read and the hardest. So I have to pick a question from the middle._

"Fine. Here's your question. What are Koch's Postulates?", she said, smiling smugly, so sure that he won't be able to get it.

Naruto was quiet for a few moments. During which, Mari thought she had won. But suddenly, he picked his head up and said, "It was his rules to identifying pathogens to specific diseases. There are four of them. One, find the same pathogen in each diseased individual, two, isolate the pathogen from the diseased subject and grow it in a pure culture, three, induce the disease in animals by transferring the pathogen from the culture, four, isolate the same pathogen from the animals after the disease develops."

Mari's mouth hung wide open as he went through each one. Even more surprising, he said it word for word in the textbook. "How-", she began saying but could not form the words.

Naruto tapped the side of his head with his finger. "Photographic memory. I had to read each page only once. Then I have that memory in my head that I can take out anytime I want."

Mari shut her open mouth and crossed her arms. "Hey, that's cheating.", she whined.

Naruto didn't bother responding. He just picked up a fork and began eating. Kakashi and Mari were silent. Mari was because she felt like she was cheated out of a few years of torture. Kakashi was because he felt like something was off. He looked at Naruto and realized it then. His exam scores were always horrible. Every test was a huge failure.

Kakashi asked, "Naruto, if you have photographic memory, how is it that you failed all your exams?"

This brought Sasuke's and Sakura's attention as well. They realized that the scores Naruto had in the academy and what Naruto had just said clashed. Both couldn't be true.

"Yeah, Naruto, why did you fail?", asked Sakura.

"Well, what do you expect from the dead last?", Sasuke said with a smug look on his face. Naruto was still his rival and it felt good knowing that he was better than him still at some things.

Naruto sighed. "I don't know. I complained with Iruka-sensei, but he didn't understand. Every test I got had questions that I've never even heard of. I'm pretty sure one of the questions that was on the test in the Chunnin Exams was on it."

Both members of Team 7 were surprised. But Kakashi thought he probably knew what had happened. '_It seems that some teachers were willing to put little Naruto under a genjutsu so he would never become a ninja. Maybe Mizuki?_

The blond gave a yawn as he stretched. "So, are you finally going to teach me Zemen techniques?"

Mari's arms remained crossed. "Well, I don't wanna. But I did make that deal with you, so fine. Let's start now."

Both stood up and headed for the door. Sakura asked, "hey, Kakashi-sensei, what are Zemen techniques?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know. I'm pretty curious though. Let's go watch their training and find out." He stood up and Sakura followed suit. "Sasuke, you coming?", he asked.

Sasuke grunted but inside he was eager to watch. He could copy some of Naruto's moves with his Sharingan and see how powerful he actually has become.

They headed outside and found the two in a clearing. Both of them were sitting on the ground. They had to strain their ears to listen, but they could make out the words between the two.

"… learned the entire world is made of molecules. What Zemen techniques are using your zeher and moving these molecules to your favor. And not just molecules, atoms, even subatomic particles too. You can control all of these to make what you want. In short, this is what people called alchemy."

"Alchemy?"

"Yes, alchemy. It was a branch of science where people tried to figure out how to make ordinary metals into gold. It was accidently started when one of the stupid Zemen reapers got drunk and started to show off.", she said. For some reason, she looked really annoyed at the last sentence.

"But not only the molecules of metals. You could control the molecules of anything. You could freeze water without the use of temperature changes. As you know, freezing is just molecules when the movements have slowed considerably. Using your zeher, you can do this too. Not only that, you could control carbon and make diamonds out of trees for example."

Naruto's eyes bugged out when he heard that. "So-"

"No. You cannot. I said you could. But it is very bad for a reaper to use his abilities for his own selfish gain when he doesn't need it."

"Aww."

"So, what I want you to do is to try this for youself."

Naruto nodded and went into a meditative-like state. He concentrated on his zeher and reached out to the earth around him like he would using Shadow techniques.

Suddenly, the an area of land next to them exploded. Pieces of hard rocks shot out and grazed Naruto on the cheek. Mari reacted quickly and a wall of earth rose up and protected her.

"AH! What the hell?", Naruto shouted as he stared at the crater. He was sure that it was his fault. Right before the earth exploded, he was reaching out here.

Mari stood up and saw a huge cut on Naruto's face. She was going to offer him to heal it, but then the wound started to steam and it closed up.

Shaking her out of her surprise, Naruto started yelling/asking, "Why did the ground just blow up? What did I do wrong?"

"Tell me what you did.", she demanded. She'll find out about what happened to his cut later. Now was teacher time.

"I just did the same thing I do with Shadow techniques. I reach out and focus on the things I want to control and move them with my will."

She nodded. She picked up a stick and drew a circle. "This is you." She started drawing those greater than signs you learn in math all around the circle until it looked like a sun drawn by a little kid. "This is the path of your zeher. When you focus it, it goes out like an arrow. That amount of focus is good, if you're trying to move one molecule."

"what?", Naruto said dumbly.

"What I mean is you're putting too much focus into this. Instead of you focusing your zeher like this, you should do it like this." She drew another circle and began drawing math symbols around it again. But this time the symbols were like less than symbols so all the points pointed toward Naruto.

"Be relaxed. Winds are never caring. Water is never changing. You have to not focus so much on the object but the deed you want done. As long as you can imagine it, it will be done. Remember, your brain is part of this world. It's hardwired for this."

Naruto nodded and went back into his meditative-like state. This time he followed Mari's advice and became relaxed. He felt good. This was different than using Shadow techniques. He didn't feel like he was charging into battle. He felt like sleeping.

Suddenly, he was aware of the entire earth around him. He could feel Mari across from him. He could feel the grass, worms, beetles, and even the microbes he sat next to. He was overwhelmed at the feeling.

"Good, isn't it?", he heard beside him. He turned to his side and saw Zemen sitting there with him.

"Zemen!", Naruto shouted. He looked around and saw that for some reason everything looked hazy. "What's going on?"

"Remember kid. All things of this earth has my zeher. It's what makes you physical. Actually, everyone has all zehers but at miniscule amounts. But, thanks to your new sensei here, you are relaxed enough to be in this state. I think one of my reapers named it the Mojinome (Blind Man's Sight)."

"Ehh, not bad, but it could use a little fun in it."

"Shadow is getting to you, isn't he?", he said, chuckling a little. He waved around the haze. "Well, this is your playground right now. I'm going back to sleep. And, say hello to Mari for me." With that, he faded out.

Naruto smiled at the feeling of everything. He knew that if he imagined something in this state, it would come true. But right now, he was enjoying the feeling of knowing where everything is. It annoyed him a little that his team was nearby, but his loss that he didn't see them earlier. They are in plain sight.

He felt a bunny jump in front of him. He was a little surprised that the animal didn't jump away. But he just placed it with Zemen's zeher making it seem like he was one of them. But in his opinion, a good rabbit was a dead one. Rabbits taste pretty good if you have the right spices.

He heard a gasp coming from Mari. He tried to figure out why she would be surprised until he felt it. The zeher that any animal would produce wasn't coming from the rabbit. In this state, he couldn't see it. He became focused again and the real world came back to him.

In front of him was a dead rabbit.

He wasn't surprised. It was by accident that he killed it. But if you can control all terrestrial things, you could also kill them right?

So why was Mari so surprised?

She merely stood up and walked away, leaving a confused Naruto sitting on the ground. Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura walked over. Naruto looked over to them and asked, "What did I do?"

Sakura sniffed. "What's that horrible smell?", she asked. She looked down in front of Naruto and screamed. "What is that?", she yelled.

Naruto followed her gaze and saw the dead rabbit. "Possibly dinner. But that's not the problem right now. Mari just went off for no reason."

"Hmm, I really don't know what's going on, but let's get back to Kira-san's house. I'm sure Jinso-san will come to you whenever she feels like it. Come, let's go."

All four of them made the walk back to Kira's house. Naruto was the first one in. He was so confused. What did he do to make Mari just leave like that? He sat down in the chair of the cafeteria table where he just was not too long ago, and sighed. Oh well, he thought. There's no point in thinking about it if there wasn't any chance he'll figure it out.

His teammates sat down with him and waited for something. Naruto noticed this and said, "What?"

"Dobe, what are those techniques you've been doing?", asked Sasuke. His Sharingan was on during the whole ordeal and saw an odd energy coming from Naruto. It wasn't chakra, but it looked like it. He saw this weird energy go to the rabbit. Suddenly, that same energy started to come from the rabbit but Naruto's energy engulfed it. It soon went back to Naruto, all the energy from the rabbit gone. Next thing he knew, the rabbit was dead.

Naruto stuck his tongue at him. "Not telling. My techniques.", he said childishly.

"Dobe", Sasuke growled. However, Naruto couldn't prod his growing annoyance and anger because something caught his eye.

It was a little girl hiding behind the doorway. She looked a little familiar, but Naruto was sure he never saw her before.

The girl, realizing that she had been seen, pulled her head back behind the door way. A moment later, Naruto could hear footsteps going away from here.

"What is it, Naruto?", asked Sakura.

"I saw a little girl over there. She just ran off when I saw her." He thought for a moment. Then he yelled, "Kenta!"

A minute later, the boy came in the cafeteria. "Whatcha need?"

"I saw a little girl there by the doorway just now. Are there more people staying here at the hotel?", Naruto asked.

Kenta muttered to himself, "little girl, little girl. Hmm." Then he snapped his fingers. "Wait, maybe you saw my little sister, Kairi. She's an extremely curious girl, but she's too shy to ask any questions. She's a little weird in my opinion."

"your sister?", repeated Naruto. He could see some resemblance between that girl and him. They both had brown hair and brown eyes but the similarities stopped there. Kenta had short spiky hair that hanged down all the time. Not as spiky as his, but spiky. The girl had short, straight hair that stopped at her shoulders. Kenta was loud and talkative, especially when you got him on the subject of warriors. The sister he just described sounded like the complete opposite.

Naruto realized something just then. "hey, Kenta, you say you want to be a warrior, but you never said what kind. What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Hmm, I really didn't care which kind of warrior I'll turn out to be. But if I had to choose the best one, it would be samurais. Their swords are so cool and they are always so honorable and cool and stuff."

Naruto smiled a little mischievously. He turned to Kakashi, "Hey, sensei, let's duel. If I win, you'll never ask me about my abilities again. And plus, you might see some of them in action."

"Hmm, that's seems okay. Fine, let's have a little spar, but I'm not going easy on you. I'll be going all out, and I expect you will be too.", replied Kakashi. Sakura and Sasuke looked at him in shock. Their sensei, a jounin, going all out on a genin? It seemed a little overkill. Sakura didn't care how strong Naruto had gotten. This was too risky even for him. Sasuke, however, could see why Kakashi would even think about going all out. It meant Naruto was strong enough to at least put up a fight. His teeth grinded in anger. '_Dammit, Naruto. How do you keep surpassing me? I almost kill you and you come back like this?_, thought Sasuke.

All five of them walked back to the clearing. Sasuke, Sakura, and Kenta stood where Team 7 had been eavesdropping earlier, far away but not too far. Naruto and Kakashi walked over to where the dead rabbit was, and was surprised to see it was all bones.

"Ah, come on! I was actually going to eat that later!", complained Naruto.

"Maa, maa. Naruto, should you really be concentrating on that rabbit?", Kakashi said as he pulled his hitai-ate up, "when you have me to deal with?"

Naruto smirked. "You don't scare me."

"Then Naruto, you still have much to learn."

"Oh, really?"

A wind blew against them. Naruto removed his hitai-ate. Kakashi looked at him, questioning look in his eyes. "Naruto, what are you doing?"

Naruto didn't reply, but threw his hitai-ate into the sky. "Soul Stealer, arise from the darkness in my heart."

A black orb appeared at the center of his hitai-ate and expanded until it engulfed it completely. Then the black orb started forming into a sword shape, before drawing back, revealing Soul Stealer.

Naruto caught it and aimed it at the surprised Kakashi. "I'm not going easier on you either, sensei. Let me say it this time. Come at me with the intent to kill or you'll fail."

Kakashi got into a battle stance and got his kunai out. Naruto let his sword's tip rest on the ground as he stood relaxed. But Kakashi knew better. He wasn't sure who taught him swordsmanship, but Naruto was actually tensed mentally. He was ready to act as soon as he saw something. This stance, with proper training, is a very dangerous one, especially for a ninja since there way of life is about discretion and taking them out without their target being aware of it. In this stance, no ninja could surprise him.

Kakashi quickly threw his kunai at Naruto. The blond genin slashed upward and cut the kunai in half, much to everyone's surprise. But Kakashi didn't stop to wonder what that sword was made out of. He quickly made some hand seals and began his famous jutsu.

"Raikiri!", he called out, the lightning chakra forming in his hands and jumping to the ground. He noticed the shocked looks of his students, but Naruto seemed pretty relaxed. Nonetheless, he said, "Are you sure you want me to go full out?"

Naruto gave a calm smile. "Bring it on!", he yelled. But on the inside, he was freaking out. His Rasengan matched the Chidori in power barely. And Kakashi's Raikiri was stronger than that. He yelled in his mind, "Zemen!"

"What? I was sleeping!", came back.

"What's the opposite of Lightning? Tell me before I die!"

"Lightning? Well, in most places, rock or stone is the opposite, but for ninjas, I think it was wind."

"Wind? That's easy. So I just gather air molecules and push them toward him, right? Then I'd better go into the Mojinome state and then-" he was cut off with Zemen's cry of "You fool!"

"Just gathering wind molecules and pushing out will give him a gentle breeze. His attack is a chakra based elemental attack. That means only chakra can counteract it. You have to use your zeher to make gather wind molecules and then add chakra into it. From what I remember, wind chakra makes thin and sharp attacks."

"Add both? Aww, I can't do that. That's too difficult."

"Just do it, or you'll die, remember?"

Naruto huffed. "Fine. I'll try." '_But this is going to be impossible. I can't handle two energies at once! If only Mari-san was here. It'd be so much easier if another person helped. Wait, another person? I got it!_

Naruto made his favorite cross-shaped seal. "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!**" A clone appeared next to him.

"Are you sure you want to go with the Rasengan against me, Naruto?", asked Kakashi, waiting for Naruto to attack first to give him a fair chance.

Naruto smirked. "Who said I was going to use the Rasengan?" '_I'm going to use a cooler technique. One I just made up a name for._

He put his hands together and turned them into the hamburger position. Then while concentrating on his zeher and the air around him, he willed the molecules to come to his hand. He moved his hands in opposite directions, one going up and the other going down. As he did, the clone placed his hands near the growing opening between the original's hands and started to feed it chakra.

A small and thin tornado appeared. The top and bottom of it attached to the original's palms. It got taller and taller as he moved his hands further and further. Dust and dirt started to be picked up, making the tornado into a grey-brown color. It made it visible to the others. To the others, it looked like a blade made out of wind, but it was curved.

Kakashi, seeing Naruto's hands stop moving, decided that he gave him enough time. He raced toward Naruto with his Raikiri breaking through the dirt underneath.

Naruto turned his hands sideways so that the wind blade was horizontal. When he saw Kakashi coming, he clapped his hands together, making the blade shoot out like when you try to break a flexible toothpick, and instead of breaking, the force makes it fling out.

Kakashi saw the brownish blade come toward him. He could dodge it if he wanted to, but he wanted to see the power behind Naruto's new jutsu. He believed that the Raikiri was stronger still even with the elemental disadvantage and knew he wouldn't get hurt.

Well, he was half-right. He wasn't hurt. But as soon as the Raikiri hit the wind blade, they both shattered. Kakashi's eyes widened.

Naruto grinned. "My new technique, **Whirlwind Sickle.**"

END

Please review. And read the AN on the top. Don't skip it.


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